


Mischief and Muse

by Lovelygrayness



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Universe - Fandom, The Avengers (MARVEL) - Fandom
Genre: Avengers - Freeform, Comic, Heroes, Marvel - Freeform, Mischief, Muse - Freeform, Tesseract, The Avengers - Freeform, universe - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-20 17:52:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2437688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovelygrayness/pseuds/Lovelygrayness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Revised from Quizilla]<br/>MARVEL owns all characters and situations originated by MARVEL. I own Agent Muse and situations pertaining to Agent Muse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enemies

**Author's Note:**

> The first version of this story was actually written a few years ago and was first published on Quizilla, however the site has now shut down and I have made revisions to this story. Please Message, rate, and enjoy.

Enemy: A hostile or opposing force 

Chapter 1: Enemies

"Coulson!” I called after my advisor, a.k.a. mentor.

As I ran to him I could see the helicopter, carrying the director, making its circles to prepare for a landing as I slowed my pace. My boots clunking slightly at my heavier steps and my hair beginning to thrash about my face as I came to a stop next to him.

“AGENT MUSE!” He began, his eyes hidden behind his signature dark shades, being forced to yell over the whipping air caused by the helicopter blades.

“RIGHT ON TIME! DIRECTOR FURY IS JUST ARRIVING!” He said as we both turned to see the helicopter slowly lowering itself onto the S.H.I.E.L.D. landing deck.

I put a hand up to hold my hair in place, keeping the blue tendrils from getting into my eyes. I could feel the cold air whisked around from the helicopter against my bare abdomen. My S.H.I.E.L.D. combat suit was a specialized model that consisted of a short black sleeveless jacket that hung open atop a black zipped top which cut off under my chest, exposing my abdomen, along with black leggings that ended above my knees finished with fingerless gloves and boots as well.

The helicopter lowered itself to the ground and just before it touched down the door slid open revealing Deputy Director Agent Maria Hill who quickly got out and headed over to us as Director Fury himself exited at a more casual speed, seeming genuinely calm despite the situation.  
He proceeded over with a collected demeanor as always, his long black leather coat flying up behind him as a result of the circulating air from the slowing helicopter blades. As he walked he looked around observing the chaos that surrounded us.

Only a few hours prior Coulson had gotten the notification that The Tesseract, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secret treasures that had been found at the bottom of the ocean along with Captain America himself, had started misbehaving. As a result, Agent Coulson had been called in to inspect the situation and begin an evacuation of the premises, bringing me along because, as he claimed, Director Fury himself wanted me there.  
Unfortunately for us, the NASA campus was highly populated and the inhabitants were in panic, which, as always warranted a common lack of intelligence that only worsened the pounding headache I had been nursing since earlier that day. Luckily I had been ordered to stay out of range of the populous and wait for further orders, which were to be given by the man standing in front of us.  
Director Fury looked to Phil and then down to me with his one eye before his gaze returned to Phil.

“How bad is it?” He asked simply, a seemingly reserved reaction to the predicament.

I looked up to Phil as he responded, taking his shades off.

“That’s the problem Sir, we don’t know.”

Without even a verbal response, director Fury turned, proceeding into the building, followed by Agent Hill, Coulson, and myself.  
By now the building was clear of all civilians and only agents remained as we headed down a lengthy hall and boarded a metal elevator.  
“What do we know so far?” Director Fury asked, as Agent Hill scanned her S.H.I.E.L.D. badge giving her the access to proceed to the lower floors. Access that my own badge would not have given me.

As a level 4 agent I was both excited and nervous about being present with all of them. Neither Director Fury nor Deputy Director Hill intimidated me, I saw them often enough when Coulson reported directly to them. It was the simple fact that, as a level 4 agent and a young one at that, I was being allowed access to one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secret operations bases. I knew little about the operation itself, only knowing that it involved the Tesseract, of which my knowledge was also limited. The only things I knew about it were the stories that Phil had told me about in the days of Captain America. It was thrilling to finally be included in a higher level operation, since often Phil would be called off somewhere that I didn’t have access to go. However at the same time it made me uneasy. I had no idea why I was there or what was going on. Phil had said that director Fury wanted me there but nobody had told me why, however I didn’t dare asking about it. I just kept quiet and listened as Phil caught director Fury up on everything.

As we descended further my headache progressed. I tried to shake it off and keep my wits but my body was beginning to tingle. We slowed to a stop and the elevator door opened and director Fury proceeded out, followed by our group. I began to wonder if they had forgotten about me, if I wasn’t really supposed to be there, but I dared not ask. I wanted to be included for as long as I could. It was after all a high level operation.

“Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago.” Phil Coulson told the director as we walked.

Agents and NASA specialists scrambled about, moving large boxes and equipment around as I took in every detail of the secret underground base. I placed my hand to my forehead for a moment, hoping the flesh of my hand would cool my head and ease the pain of my headache but my whole body had begun to heat and sweat slightly. I quickly took my hand away, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. I didn’t want to be sent away for medical attention.

“NASA didn’t authorize Selvig to go to test phase.” Director Fury responded.

“He wasn’t testing it. He wasn’t even in the room. Spontaneous event.” Phil informed him.

“It just turned itself on?” deputy director Hill asked.

“What are the energy levels now?” Director Fury asked, as if Hill’s previous question was irrelevant.

“Climbing. When Selvig couldn’t shut it down, we ordered evac.”

“How long to get everyone out?” director Fury asked.

“Campus should be clear in the next half hour.”

“Do better.” Director Fury stated simply, yet with surprising authority.

With this Phil nodded, turning to execute his orders and I turned swiftly, following suit.

“Agent Muse.” I heard the director call, causing Phil and I to turn around.

“Yes, Sir?” I asked, a bit surprised.

“You come with me.”

My eyes widened slightly and I looked to Phil as if seeing if it was alright. His eyes flickered to the director and then back to me as he stepped closer to me.

“Are you going to be alright?” He asked, placing his hand to my forehead, his cool hand soothing the pain slightly.

He had known about my headache the entire time.

“I’m fine.” I replied, lying through the pain.

Director Fury needed me for something and I wasn’t about to miss out on some action because of a headache. He nodded and turned, heading off to do his duty and I turned to face director Fury, catching agent Hill pull back from whispering something to him. They both looked back at me and I proceeded over to them as director Fury proceeded forward, not wasting a moment. As we walked on he spoke to me, keeping his attention forward, Maria Hill stationed between us and continuing to look back at me.

“Agent Coulson tells me you’ve had a headache today, since before we were notified of the situation.” He said with the inclination that it was a question.

“Yes, Sir.” I began, trying to pull my thoughts together and ignore the headache.

“Will it be a problem?”

“No sir.” I responded assuredly.

There came no reply as we began to descend a long winding staircase. Agent Hill got closer to director Fury and began speaking in a hushed tone, the only sounds I heard being the reverberations of her hard “S” sounds and “C”’s echoing off of the walls. Curious as I was to hear their conversation, she continued giving me looks, silently ordering that I stay back.

We reached the end of the stairs, director Fury and Hill reaching the landing before I did and beginning to raise their voices at each other, though it had become hard for me to make out their words. My head was throbbing and each time I descended a step, my knees felt as if they were incapable of supporting the weight of my body. I forced myself to stand up straight and hold myself together as I descended the last few steps, seeing agent Hill look at me. I tried to make my pain as inconspicuous as possible, determined to look strong in front of them. She exchanged a few last words with Fury, her eyes flickering back to me as I leaned against the wall, attempting to look more like I was waiting as I held myself up against it for support, before she turned and left, taking a handful of other agents with her.  
Director Fury turned to me then.

“Still doing alright?”

I stood up straight, nodding.

“Yes, Sir.”

He stared at me a moment, his face still calm as if analyzing me before he faced the large open area next to him and proceeded in, beckoning me with his hand.

“Talk to me doctor.” Director Fury announced, waltzing into the room with purpose.

The room was large with a lot of high tech equipment and S.H.I.E.L.D. engineers. They were all in frenzy, hurrying around the room and quickly sliding their hands across holo-screens. I looked all around, doing a three sixty and looking at the arced ceiling before facing forward again, hearing someone respond to the director.

After turning, I saw not only the owner of the voice, Dr. Eric Selvig a consulting astrophysicist with SHIELD, but before him there was an enormous contraption, a bright blue light emitting from it. Upon closer inspection I was able to see that it was a cube and in that instant, I knew that it was the Tesseract, mesmerized by its light and the presence that a mere object could hold. It was as if I could feel it in my bones, a far more impressive thing in person than in the stories I’d heard.

Dr. Selvig, stepped from behind the contraption, his old age and bulk causing him to teeter from left to right on his hips as he walked. I wondered what had become of his younger associates. Surely Jane Foster would have been more suited to such a job in a place with such rigid surroundings.

“The Tesseract is misbehaving.” He stated.

As he began walking over to us another engineer, with some sort of rod stepped up to the contraption and poked at it, causing a small burst of energy to reach out and suddenly an immense surge of pain went through my body and I fell to my knees, grabbing my head.

“AAAGH!!”

Director Fury turned to me as Dr. Selvig came up next to him and froze.

“Agent Muse?” Fury asked with some concern as he approached me, Dr. Selvig close behind.

“What is it?” He kneeled down in front of me.

“M-“ I struggled to speak, the pain growing. “My h-head…”

Director Fury turned to the Doctor.

“Where are the energy levels at right now?”

Dr. Selvig looked flustered, trying to find his words for a moment before answering.

“Climbing exponentially, but it’s nothing that can harm us. Only low levels of gamma radiation.”

“That can be harmful.” Fury stated matter-of-factly.

“Can.” Dr. Selvig emphasized.

“But the levels are too low to cause any real harm…” The doctor informed him.

“It couldn’t possibly be the cause of this…” he stated looking down at me in bewilderment.

“Is it possible certain individuals can be sensitive to the radiation?” Fury asked.

“I suppose it could be…” he trailed off.

“Perhaps she’s too young to be around so much energy.”

“My age has nothing to do with it.” I growled, turning to him, glaring as I felt the sweat that glazed my face.

Everyone insisted that being fifteen was too young to be a SHIELD agent, everyone but Natasha, she had started young and knew how I felt. My age had nothing to do with my skill level, and though it wasn’t peak level, I was skilled enough to be a field operative and I would not tolerate being underestimated or assumed weak.

I gripped my head, fighting through the pain as director Fury attempted to help me up. As he brought me back to a standing position I kept my hand to my head, stabilizing myself and placing my hand on his chest to let him know I was alright to stand.

“I’m fine.” I stated as the pain withered a bit and he let go.

The Dr. seemed to accept this with some surprise to my words, nonetheless he said nothing more about it. In the meantime Director Fury continued to question Dr. Selvig about the situation as I looked over at the Tesseract.

“Is there anything else we ought to know about?”

“Yes. She’s not only active, she’s…behaving.” He struggled at the last part as if trying to find the right word.

“I assume you pulled the plug.” The director asked.

“She’s an energy source.” Dr. Selvig began, walking back over the control panel, Director Fury and myself following.

“Every time we turn the power off she turns it back on.”

He rounded the panel and stood behind it.

“If she reaches peak level-“

“We prepared for this doctor.”

Director Fury cut him off.

“Harnessing energy from space.”

“But we don’t have the harness. My calculations are far from complete.”

Listening to them I became confused. As they spoke of space and harnessing energy I found it all somewhat shocking. All of this time these things were going on in the world beyond my knowledge. Something as big as harnessing energy from space was hidden, not only from me and the rest of the low level agents, but from the entire world.

“She’s throwing off interference, radiation.” Selvig continued as Fury turned to look at the Tesseract.

Director Fury looked over to the Tesseract as the doctor spoke then turned to face him again.

“Where is agent Barton?” director Fury asked.

Selvig scoffed.

“The hawk? Up in his nest. As usual.”

He pointed his thumb up behind him, to a balcony overlooking the room. Director Fury put his hand up to his Bluetooth and called for Barton to report. I could see him moving from his perched position though my vision was a bit blurry and he proceeded over to descend a rope. As I watched him slide down I noticed large NASA banners with our S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol on them, reading a bunch of things related to Dark energy and dark matter as well as the words “Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.”. I knew that this was the S.H.I.E.L.D. operation that involved the Tesseract and that, as with all S.H.I.E.L.D. projects, the acronym had to mean something, but my attempts to discern that meaning were futile.  
Clint approached and Fury headed over to meet him half way, leaving me standing off to the side as they began speaking.  
Out of nowhere another intense surge of pain overcame my body, I brought my hands up to my head, fighting to stand as my knees threatened to give way.

“Ghh!!”

The pain was immense and my vision began to blur further, my hearing phasing out as my legs became weaker. I looked over to director Fury and Clint, making out vague shapes and sounds as my vision seemed to tint blue and in the next moment I collapsed to the floor.

 

(3rd POV)

“I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things.” Fury began scolding Clint as he walked over to him.

“I see better from a distance. “ Clint said plainly.

“Did you see anything that could have set this thing off?”

“Set it off? No.” Hawkeye said then turning to look back at agent Muse.

“She shouldn’t be here.”

“I’m the judge of that.”

“With all due respect Sir, I understand your intent but she is too young to be involved in this.”

He turned so as not to alert her that they were talking about her.

“And that’s not the only problem.”

“Agent Barton, I understand your disproval of agent Muse’s presence in this organization but she needs to be here.”

Agent Barton remained silent, accepting the director’s words.

“Have you seen any suspicious activity?

“No one’s come or gone.” Hawkeye said as he and Nick Fury walked up to the Tesseract.

Suddenly they both heard one of the scientists announce that the Tesseract was spiking again and turned upon hearing the sound, catching sight of agent Muse with her hands on her head and stumbling.

“Should we do something?”

“She's tough.” Fury responded keeping his one eye trained on her.

“You were saying?”

Hawkeye stared at Muse for a moment longer before turning back to the director and crossing his arms.

“If there was any tampering Sir, it wasn’t at this end.”

Fury looked over to the agent beside him, unsure of what he meant.

“At this end?” He asked.

Hawkeye looked over to his superior, defending his statement.

“Yeah, The cube is a doorway to the other end of space right? Doors open from both sides.”

Suddenly the Tesseract activated and bursts of energy began pulsating out from it. Fury and Hawkeye stepped back, the ground began shaking and could be felt all over the facility. They stood at the ready, waiting to see what was happening and suddenly a large beam of light blasted forward. In the next moment a scream was heard and both men turned, seeing agent Muse on the floor and convulsing. Hawkeye attempted to run over when he noticed that the beam was forming a portal at the far end of the chamber. They both stared in shock as agent Muse’s screams faded under the sound of the energy beam. It continued to fill out until an enormous blast of energy abruptly filled the room, causing everyone to avert their gaze.

 

(Agent Muse POV)  
A pain unlike any I had ever felt before surged through my body as I convulsed on the ground. I could feel myself screaming but I could scarcely hear it. The hysteria lasted for only a few minutes before it began to wither, my vision coming back to me slowly as well as my hearing and I could see that I was facing the stand with the Tesseract. I still couldn’t move, pain still lingering and weak from the writhing. As I looked over and my vision began to clear I could see everyone in the room standing still and in silence, noticing director Fury standing next to Clint. As I looked at them I could see something moving far in front of them on the other side of the room, I tried to push myself up, managing, only to press my hand to the floor in a futile effort. The form slowly began to rise and I realized it was the figure of a man. He stood slowly from his kneeling position as I realized that he held in his hand a spear of some kind with a glowing blue orb that was vibrant even from where I laid.

I could barely make out his features but I could see that he wore a garb of black leather, accented with emerald green cloth and what seemed to be golden armor. His skin was pale with long black hair that was slicked back down his neck, the tips curling slightly at the edges.  
“Sir! Please put down the spear!” I heard Fury yell, breaking the silence as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents pointed their firearms at the figure and slowly approached.

I could see the slight movements as the man looked down at the spear, as if having forgotten it was there and Director Fury’s request had been a reminder. In the next moment he looked up to Fury appearing both confused and insulted and instantly he pointed the spear at the director and a beam of blue light shot forwards. Clint bolted to the director’s front to block the attack, sending them both flying backwards into some machinery as the few scientists that were left standing became panicked and scrambled. The agents with weapons charged at the man stupidly as though he had not just displayed his power.

The man leapt at them, a crazed look on his face as he brought his spear down into an agent’s chest and landed. More agents began shooting at him and with excellent reflexes he spun around, letting daggers fly though the air and hitting the agents directly in the chest with precision. Their bullets merely bounced off of him as if there were some sort of invisible energy field around him as he turned for the next attack. He pointed the spear at the scientists who were only hiding, not even attacking him as if he wanted to eliminate everyone in the room. As I laid there I saw his destruction and insanity. I tried to move my body, only managing to pull myself mere inches across the smooth floor, easing myself onto an arm, only to fall again. My body was weak, and I was being utterly useless as this maniac slaughtered everyone in the room. If I did not get up soon, I would be the only one left.

His movements were bestial and ragged, moving like an animal with unbelievable precision. He was clearly not human. As I pushed myself onto one elbow one of the men he had knocked down before stood and he turned swiftly, as if having sensed him there, and sliced across his chest with the head of the spear. More agents got to their feet, having been blown to the ground from the blast of energy and I too tried to regain myself but to no avail. Clint knelt at the front of the pack and as the man sent another energy blast their way, he rolled out of the crossfire and to the side. Another agent came at him, foolishly and the man proceeded to kick him with great force, sending him flying high into a wall, like no human strength could.

The crazed and unknown man stopped then, looking around seemingly disoriented, at the room full of dead bodies as if making sure he’d finished them all off. As he scanned the room I assumed he thought I was yet another dead body, for I was also on the floor and he had not made an attempt to attack me. Suddenly Clint began to stand and the man was beside him in an instant, Clint spun around with his gun ready to shoot, but the man caught his wrist, contorting it so that he could not shoot. And for the first time he spoke, in an accent.

“You have heart.” He said as if mocking Clint.

I was surprised upon hearing his accent, knowing now, for sure, that he was foreign. He looked down to Clint’s chest and protruded the spear’s tip into it causing something strange to happen. Blue filled the veins in Clint’s body, climbing up to his neck as they faded to silver, resembling mercury. His eyes turned entirely black before the darkness faded and his irises were all that remained blue. I observed this with confusion as the man smiled seemingly pleased with the result and suddenly Clint stood straight, replacing his gun to his holster. My eyes widened, deducing that Clint was under some sort of mind control.

The man, now apparently content, cockily shifted his spear to the opposite hand and turned swiftly to the others, some of them slowly getting up to my relief, they were not all dead. However after seeing what he had planned for them, my relief faded. Another agent’s chest was soon met with the tip of the man’s spear, his veins and eyes repeating the same process that Clint’s had.

I tried desperately to push myself to my feet, gaining little headway as I managed only to stabilize myself on both elbows. I looked up to Clint, and then over at the man. He still had not noticed me but suddenly I noticed director Fury over near the Tesseract’s stand, sneakily removing the cube with his leather gloves and placing it into a case before trying to sneak away.

“Please don’t” The man’s voice resonated through the nearly silent room, the only other sounds of groaning, and snapped electrical cords sparking.

He turned away from his latest victim and faced the director.

“I still need that.”

Now was my chance. His back was to me and though the pain throughout my body was immense I had to be of some use. If I wasn’t able to get to my feet the director could die. I strained every muscle in my body, managing to roll onto my side and position myself to stand, working up the strength for the act as I heard Fury speak.

“This doesn’t have to get any messier.” He stated, slowly turning around.

“Of course it does.” The man began, his voice low and smooth.

“I’ve come too far for anything else.”

Fury turned to him fully now as I saw Dr. Selvig begin to stand, teetering slightly after clearly being hurt during the fall and checking woman scientist for signs of life.

“I am Loki. Of Asgard.” He continued, now providing a name to his face.

“And I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

This Loki, this man whom had just killed everyone in the room, who was savage and beast like, who was ruthless and murderous, he was insane. The way he spoke, the way he moved, the way he conveyed his thoughts, everything about him was wrong and he would pay for what he had done to everyone, if only I could manage to stand.

Suddenly Dr. Selvig began to stand.

“Loki.” He began.

“Brother of Thor.”

I looked up to him and then to the man named Loki. I vaguely remembered the mention of Thor when Phil had taken me to an excavation site in New Mexico, where we had first recruited the scientists.

The man looked over to Selvig as if utterly disgusted with his statement before Fury spoke up.

“We have no quarrel with your people.”

The man looked to Fury with haughty contempt.

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”

I looked over to him shocked, pulling my legs forward to push myself up.

Ants.

He had compared us to ants, and he was the hypothetical boot. He had claimed he was stronger than us, humans, one of which he clearly was not. He had placed himself on a pedestal of power and comfortably set his foot down atop us. It was insulting in the least, it was revolting at most and I would prove him wrong for such a presumptuous statement.

“Are you planning to step on us?” The director asked.

The man suddenly changed demeanor, cockily smirking and walking a few steps and looking Dr. Selvig in the eye.

“I come with glad tidings.”

Before he even went on I glared at him, knowing that was far from the truth as I struggled to get to one knee, fully feeling the effects of the small movement and having to hold myself up with all of my power as the pain intensified. I had begun to notice that the energy from the blast from the Tesseract had been accumulating at the peak of the dome within the ceiling of the room, it seemed that the more it gathered, the weaker I became.

“Of a world made free.” He continued.

“Free from what?” Director Fury asked with immense skepticism evident in his voice.

“Freedom.” The man’s features suddenly expressed seriousness.

I looked up to the man quickly, sweating profusely and heaving breaths as if my lungs would collapse in on each other. Freedom from freedom. It was an insane notion, it was twisted and revolting. This man truly was mad.

“Freedom is life’s great lie.” He went on, walking slowly.

“Once you accept that, in your heart.” He turned swiftly to Dr. Selvig and protruded the tip of the spear into his chest as he lost himself to the man named Loki’s control.

“You will know peace.”

I glared at him hard. He was insane and he was dangerous. He needed to be stopped. With what power he already seemed to have, if he got his hands on the Tesseract he would be a force to reckon with. I looked up to the ceiling again, noticing that the energy had gathered into a large cloud and began to swirl, clearly symbolizing that whatever was about to happen would not be good. The pain within my body continued to grow and my strength began to wane even more, my elbows and body beginning to crumple once more. I fought for my strength in bitter frustration. I was an agent and to lie there like a weakling was inexcusable.

“You say peace, but I kind of think you mean the other thing.” Fury responded.

Just then Clint walked over to the man named Loki.

“Sir, director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow. He means to bury us.” He said stopping next to him and turning to face Fury.

“Like the pharaohs of old.” The director stated, smirking.

Dr. Selvig proceeded to announce that the portal was collapsing in on itself and I looked up to see the cloud of energy beginning to pulsate. I wrenched a knee forward in desperation to stop this man, feeling a tremendous burning sensation and I let out a loud groan.

In that one instant the man named Loki whipped his head toward me and we locked eyes. His eyes were a crazed blue green as I glared at him with my own grey orbs, threatening him with my eyes, knowing that my body was too weak to stand yet. In the next moment Clint took out his gun and shot the director, sending him falling to the ground.

“N-GHUH!” I groaned, trying to yell to the director.

Hawkeye proceeded over to him, wrenching the case that held the Tesseract from his hands.  
The man named Loki thinned his eyes in confusion at me, as if questioning my existence. He had been so sure of his complete obliteration of everyone in the room, and yet there I was, only alive because of my pathetic weakness. It was shameful. No one else had been affected by the radiation, and they had all died. It was my job to avenge their deaths and to stop him. Even if the fortress collapsed on us, I could not allow him to leave with The Tesseract.

He tilted his head, still blatantly confused and began a slow and steady stride over to me.

“You…” He began, speaking directly to me for the first time.

As he approached the pain worsened as I forced and fought my body, trying to push myself to my feet, managing in pure desperation alone to bring the other knee forward. I was thankful for his slow advance, without his dramatic approach I would most likely be yet another among the dead bodies.

“How did I miss you?” He asked as if genuinely believing he would receive an answer.

He was only a few feet away from me now and I struggled to push myself unsteadily onto my feet staggering as the pain only continued to worsen. He must have taken this as a sign of damage because his features exhibited even more surprised shock.

“Or could it be that you were simply overcome by the blast?” He asked smirking, as if mocking my strength.

I growled, glaring up at him as I slowly regained what little strength was left in me. I was intelligent enough to know that, that amount of strength would barely affect him, let alone give me any chance of survival. I had seen his movements. He was precise, intelligent, deadly. But that was not a factor to me. All I had to do was stall him long enough for the portal to collapse on itself and he would be dead just like the rest of us. My plan surely lacked in heroics, or strength but I didn’t care. This man was a lunatic and he was a murderer and I was the only coherent person left in the room with the hope of stopping him. Even If no one knew it was me, I would avenge the deaths of the director, and of the scientists and agents limp on the floor around me.

I forced myself into a fighting stance, if only to give the illusion of strength. He would not see me weak. The enemy would never see me weak.

“I’m not so easily beaten.” I stated, glaring like a basilisk.

He seemed surprised by this, amused almost, for a smirk spread across his lips.

“No, surely I would have recalled one as peculiar as you.” He said coming to a stop before me.

His eyes scanned me, inspecting me, lingering on my hair. I assumed his statement was directed at it's unusual shade of blue. I bit my lip holding in the pain and clenched my hands into fists, readying myself for any random attack, not allowing myself to be caught off guard.

“What have you done to Clint and the others?” I demanded, not taking my eyes off of him.

He laughed slightly, a breathy rolling laugh as he produced the spear and pointed it towards my chest.

“Would you like to see?”

I quickly looked down, attempting to grab hold of the spear before he shoved it forward towards my chest and suddenly the only thing I could see was blue as I felt myself being blown back against the wall, hitting it violently and sliding down. I was sure that he had bested me and opened my eyes, sitting up and realizing that I still had full control of myself. As my vision cleared I looked around seeing the man named Loki plastered against a machine, his spear on the ground a few feet from him. My brow furrowed in confusion as I watched him slowly pull himself up, bringing a hand to his head before looking to me with the same amount of shock.

“Sir.” Clint got his attention.

“We need to get out of here. Fast.”

The man looked up at him in shock then back to me before getting up and retrieving his spear. He looked back to me again as he began walking towards the exit with the other men in tow. I began to push myself to my feet but suddenly the pain had returned just as intense as it had been before and once again I collapsed onto the ground. I looked up to them, near the exit seeing that man smirk back at me as if satisfied by my pain. I glowered at him, hating him with all of myself in that moment. He had gotten away, and not only did I hate him for it, but I hated myself. Even in death I would never be relieved of that shame and as he turned the corner I felt the full wreckage of that shame. I clenched my fists and closed my eyes, feeling the pain overcome my body again and looked up to the swirling energy which had become a sort of vacuum, swirling the air in the room around and sucking machinery up into it.

It was then that I saw the director sit up, pulling what appeared to be an arrow head out of his abdomen and it registered that Clint had used his specialized gun. The director immediately got his communicator out and called for agent Hill, informing her of the situation. He got himself to a standing position and looked around the room, spotting me amongst the flying debris.

“Agent Muse!” He called.

“He got away!” was all I could think to say as a piece of metal flew passed my head.

“We need to move! This place is going to blow!” he yelled.

I tried to get up, knowing that it would be futile and shook my head as my hair blew about my face, getting stuck in my eyelashes and mouth.

“I can’t move! Go without me!” I yelled.

And for a moment I thought of Coulson. I imagined what his reaction would be to find out that I had been among the many to die in the accident when suddenly the director hurdled over the broken machinery and ran over to me. Before I knew it he had picked me up, put me on his back and began running to the exit. He was carrying me military style with my torso across the back of his shoulders and each of his arms entwined with one of my limbs to keep me supported.

"Director! Put me down! You're too slow carrying me!" I yelled as he continued to run ducking and dodging falling debris.

"Shut the hell up!" he yelled, as if sick of everything as he dodged a falling pipe.

Knowing that he had made up his mind, just as I'd have done in this situation, I obeyed and watched everything fall and turn to ruin as he ran. As he ran out of the building it began to collapse as I heard Coulson’s voice over his communicator, relieved that he was alright. He made it to a readied helicopter and handed me off to an agent inside before he got in himself.

"Take off!" he demanded in a few moments we were in the air, the ground beginning to crumble as soon as we took off.

I was able to see out of the door of the helicopter where the director held on to the roof and watched as the entire facility began to slowly crumble, in shock that I had made it out alive. And suddenly in the next moment there was a blast of energy from within the underground chamber and agonizing pain filled every vein in my body, sending me into convulsions again.

“HNNNNGHHAAAH!!”

My vision began to blur but I could still make out a small blue glow moving beneath us and I could make out director Fury commanding the pilot to follow and I knew it was him. That man. He was getting away and I was still useless.

The helicopter lowered closer to the ground and I could vaguely see that the blue light was indeed Loki's spear. He appeared to be sitting in the bed of a truck. Fury pulled out a bazooka from the back of the helicopter, at first seeming a bit excessive, but after quick second thought it was not. The helicopter turned and gave us a good angle on the truck as it swerved uncontrollably. Fury put his finger on the trigger and aimed. Loki saw this coming and aimed his spear at us sending a blue flash at the helicopter before Fury had time to pull the trigger.  
I gasped as the helicopter jerked and began to swerve. The violent jerk only intensified my pain and I groaned loudly.

"We're going down!" yelled the pilot.

I couldn't help but think how ridiculously obvious his statement was as I saw us getting closer and closer to the ground. Fury abruptly dropped the gun, grabbed my arm from behind his back, and jumped out of the helicopter, pulling me with him. As unprepared as I was, and in such a physical state, I fell unorthodox and landed on my side, rolling violently and bouncing to a stop across the hard ground. The impact of the fall made my head blur once more and I Looked to the side, seeing the blue glow slowly vanish into the distance.

He had gotten away.

Because of me.

I closed my eyes, feeling incredible shame and pain at the same time. So many had died in such a short time and the Tesseract had been stolen, only to be used for unknown intentions. I could hear Fury on his communicator only a few feet away, taking in the fact that the director himself had saved my life, not once but twice. I could only think what a pointless act it was and that he should have left me to die for being such a disgrace when suddenly I heard Coulson’s voice.

He was alright.

Relief filled my body along with the pain. Despite my shame I was relieved that I had survived if only to ease his pain and it was then that I realized I must have survived for a reason, I must have survived to stop Loki in the future, to avenge those who had died and to get the Tesseract back and in a few moments I felt myself falling slowly yet deeply into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave a heart and a comment if you enjoyed!


	2. Stimulation

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.  
\- William B. Sprague  
\-----------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: Stimulation  
I awoke to white stretching to the corners of my sight and after a few moments of allowing my vision to settle, I realized that it was a ceiling, squinting as my eyes wandered to the light. It was then that I perceived a resounding beep coming from my side. Turning, curious as to the source, I saw a heart rate monitor along with some other strange graphs.

I groaned, realizing I was in the infirmary and sat up in my bed, bringing a hand to my face, and trying to remember why I was there. I remembered arriving at the NASA laboratory with Coulson and waiting until Director Fury came. After that we proceeded to an underground testing facility and…

My eyes flew open remembering the Tesseract and the man who had stolen it, his name now burning in my mind.

“Loki.” I stated, taking my hand away from my face.

The memory of him standing before me, ready to kill me was fresh and heavy; still palpable. The spear lunging towards me, the tip aglow in blue, and the moment afterward where I had somehow survived, only to watch him escape with the cube, worthless and unable to move. Unable to stop him. Unable, even, to save myself, remembering how the director himself had carried me out of the collapsing building, saving my life, and then again as he pulled me from the crashing helicopter. Both of the other men crashing and burning along with the hunk of metal to join the long list of the dead that night.

I wondered then, why Fury had bothered saving me, why I had been important enough to save. I had been no use. I simply writhed in pain on the ground while everyone else was killed mercilessly by the man named Loki, and watching the only survivors left be taken under his control, including Clint.

He had been compromised, taken by the enemy, and such a high ranking agent in the hands of such a force could compromise all of S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. Though Barton wasn't my favorite person, it couldn't be denied that he was one of the most skilled combat and strategic agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. and that could be taken advantage of.

I lowered my gaze, grasping how worthless I had been. I had been there for the entire ordeal on order of the director himself and made a fool of myself. It was then that I realized that I had never been told why the director had wanted me there in the first place, and even more puzzling than that why the gamma radiation from the Tesseract had caused me so much pain when it seemed not to affect anyone else.

The whole of the situation was a catastrophe and something had to be done about it as soon as possible. Looking around the room, I wondered how long I had been unconscious and if any progress had been made. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, tearing the wires and nodes off of my skin and headed to the door. As I reached the front of the door I realized it wasn’t opening on its own and had been locked from the outside. Wondering why the infirmary of all places would be locked, I pulled out my S.H.I.E.L.D. identification badge and scanned it to unlock the door but to my surprise it still didn’t open. I tried my badge again, seeing the screen display “Access Denied”.

“What the-?” I wondered aloud, trying to slide the door open myself but to no avail.

Frustrated I kicked it.

“Hey!” I yelled.

“Somebody want to unlock this door?”

As if on cue I heard footsteps clanking down the hall outside of the door and looked through the glass to try and see who it was and to my relief it was Coulson. I banged on the glass and waved him over pointing to the door.

“It’s locked!” I yelled, hoping he could hear through it.

He saw me, seeming to already be headed my way and casually held up his badge, unlocking the door.

“Agent Muse, Director Fury told me what happened are you alright?” he said hastily as the door slid open.

“Yeah I’m fine! What about you?!” I blurted out, looking him up and down for signs of damage.

“I was worried when the facility collapsed!”

He stared at me for a moment as if contemplating something.

“I’m fine. Everyone got out safely.”

My gaze lingered on him for a moment before lowering to the ground as I remembered all of the people that had been murdered by Loki.

“Not everyone…”

There was silence for a few moments before I spoke again.

“That man…Loki killed almost everyone in the laboratory. Director Fury and I were the only ones to make it out alive, only because he carried me out. And Clint-“

“I know.”

He cut me off.

“They’re starting a face trace right now to find those who were taken, and Loki.”

I looked up to him.

“And the Tesseract.” I inclined.

“I assumed he’d gotten away with it as I fell unconscious.”

Coulson nodded reluctantly.

“Yes, but we’re bringing in some special help for that”

“Special?” I asked, raising a brow.

Coulson’s lips pulled into a wide smile.

“They should be headed to the deck too. Come with me, I think you should meet them.” He said turning, insinuating that I follow.

“Them?” I asked stepping out into the hallway as he began walking, me following.

He looked back at me over his shoulder.

“You’ll see.”

As he faced back forward I raised a brow in confusion but nevertheless I followed, I trusted Coulson. We continued on winding through several metal hallways, our feet clanking repeatedly as I tried to take in the environment to determine where we were but to no avail.

“Coulson?” I asked, getting his attention.

“What is it agent Muse?”

“Where are we exactly? This doesn’t look like the regular base.”

“That’s because it’s not.” He stated.

“Then what is it?”

Coulson stopped, as we came to a door and turned to me, smiling.

“Helicarrier model 64.”

My eyes widened.

“We’re on a Helicarrier?!”

“That’s right. And through those doors is the main deck. I’d prepare myself if I were you.” He said pointing to the doors down the corridor.

I turned, trying to see through the glass from where we stood.

“Come on.” He said, proceeding through the doors.

I hurried after him, coming to his side as we entered the room, all at once taken aback by how large it was. A large operations room filled with agents moving and working like a mechanism, communicating through ear pieces while operating multiple holo-screens, a small area in the center, where the Director now stood, facing an enormous set of windows, revealing that we were in fact level with the sky. Coulson had spoken to me of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarriers but I had never been on one. I had never needed to be, and my very presence there excited me and made come to the realization that my scope as an agent had just expanded. As I stood in awe, Coulson continued down the steps to speak to some agents seated at computers. I slowly proceeded forward, looking around and taking everything in, making out words being said in the madness before a door off to the opposite side of the room opened as, to my surprise, Natasha entered, followed by two unfamiliar men.

She spotted me as she made her way passed the large glass table centered in the middle of the platform separated from the controls area. I met her half way, observing her casual clothing: a tan leather jacket over top a red undershirt and some black jeans with tan leather boots that matched her jacket, also noticing that she was sporting her thigh holster.

“First time flyer?” She asked facetiously as the two men began wandering around the room.

I smirked at her comment.

“When do I get my pillow fluffed and my complementary peanuts?”

Her full lips pulled into an amused smile as suddenly Deputy Director Maria Hill’s voice resonated above the murmur of the other agents.

“All engines operating. S.H.I.E.L.D. Emergency Protocol 193.6 in affect. We’re at level Sir.” She said turning to Director Fury.

Natasha turned towards them.

“On this flight you get something better than peanuts.” She commented, nodding towards the front of the room causing me to turn as well, spotting the Director stationed at the controls in the middle of the room.

“Good.” Fury responded to Hill.

“Let’s vanish.” He declared.

Suddenly the front of the ship, visible through the large windows, seemed to start disappearing as an Agent Hill announced: “Engaging retro-reflection panels.”

I stared wide eyed at the phenomenon as Natasha smirked at me, seeming to find my amazement funny. The Director turned around, walking towards the table that Natasha and I stood by as a voice confirmed that the retro-reflection panels were engaged over the intercom and the taller of the two men that had entered with Natasha paused in front of Fury, handing him a dollar. Without explanation the Director simply took it and continued on his way, allowing the unknown blonde to look around with as much amazement as myself. Director Fury stopped in front of Natasha and me, nodding to her as she walked away and looked down to me.

“Glad to see that you’re conscious. You gave us quite a scare.”

“How long was I out?”

“Somewhere around 10 hours.”

I groaned, rolling my eyes slightly at my utter lack of usefulness my gaze falling to the ground in disappointment. I looked back up to him, finding my next words a bit hard to force out to the director.

“Thank you…for…saving my life.”

He simply nodded and then walked passed me to one of the men Natasha had walked in with as I turned to watch him.

“Dr. Banner, thank you for joining us.” He began holding out his hand to shake.

The name seemed somehow familiar to me, taking my mind a moment to process before it hit me all at once.

“Dr. Bruce banner?!” I blurted out, unintentionally interrupting their conversation.

They both turned to look at me and I slapped my hand over my mouth realizing how idiotic I sounded.

“I’m so sorry!” I began.

“I didn’t recognize you!”

He smiled dejectedly and lowered his gaze.

“I see…”

I realized how I had come off and stepped forward, apologizing.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I mean, I have only ever seen videos and photos of you so when you entered the room it wasn’t an immediate  
realization.”

He looked up to me as I came to a stop in front of him.

“It is an honor to meet one of the greatest minds in the world. I’m sorry I was so rude.”

I felt awkwardly out of place now, on a Helicarrier for my first time, amongst such high ranking agents and Dr. Banner. Uncomfortably trying to speak formally with and internal fuse sparking was something in which I lacked practice and it showed as the understanding of Coulson’s earlier statement about special help washed over me.

“Well it’s an upgrade from the usual Aaah’s and Oh no’s I suppose.” He said almost as if to himself, smiling.

He held out his hand to me, insinuating I shake it and I hesitated for a moment, unsure if it was appropriate for an agent of my status to do so.

“Thank you.” He replied as I shook his hand.

Letting go, he observed his hands as if in some confusion.

“Quite a handshake for a…” He paused a moment looking at me and contemplating.

“Young…woman.”

It was evident that he had considered calling me a child. I considered that it was a good thing he changed his mind.

“Agent Muse, Dr. Banner will be helping us in locating the Tesseract.”

“Where are you with that?” The Dr. asked.

Director Fury pointed to Coulson, giving him the cue to explain.

“We’re scanning every wireless device in the world. Cell phones, laptops…if it’s connected to a satellite its eyes and ears for us.” He said folding his  
arms as I walked over to look at some of the screens to see the progress they’d made.

Natasha crouched down on the platform next to an agent’s computer and slid her finger over a display of Clint.

“That’s still not going to find them in time.”

“How many spectrometers do you have access to?” the Dr. asked.

“How many are there?” Fury responded.

“Call every lab you know.” Banner began, taking his suit jacket off and rolling up his sleeves.

“Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I’ll work out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we can rule out a few places.”

“What’s your plan of action when you find it? I mean it’s safe to say it won’t be easy getting it back.” I interrupted, turning to Director Fury.

“That’s when our other associate steps in.” I heard Coulson’s voice behind me and turned to see him coming to a stop next to me, followed by the tall blonde man that had come with Natasha.

“Agent Muse.” Coulson began, smiling and turning slightly towards the man.

“Meet Captain Rogers.”

I stared at Coulson for a moment, brows furrowed in confusion before looking back at the blonde man, observing that his eyes were an astounding shade of blue.

“Captain?” I questioned, still befuddled.

“Captain of wha-“ and in mid-sentence the connection between the last name and the title hit me, my words flowing directly from confusion into awe.

“wha…wha…” I droned on like a fool as my eyes widened, staring at this man.

I looked back over to Coulson to confirm that what I was thinking was correct, he simply smiled and nodded before I immediately turned my attention back to the blonde man, seeing him hold out his hand to shake.

“Pleasure.”

I stared at his hand for a moment in shock, feeling far more unworthy than I had been with Dr. Banner’s. My fuse was no longer sparking, it had officially been blown.

“You’re captain America…” I stated as if he hadn’t already know, my hand mechanically lifting to his and shaking it slowly. Suddenly realizing how much of a child I must have seemed like I regained myself, resuming my formal demeanor.

“I’ve heard so many stories about you.” I said as we both released each other’s hands.

He smiled somewhat reluctantly, his gaze falling for just a moment and glancing over at Coulson before looking back to me.

“I never knew there were so many.” He replied.

“I never imagined I’d meet you in person. I mean we were all informed when they found you in the ice along with the-…” I trailed of, coming back to the reality of the situation and why we were all there.

“The Tesseract?” He asked, finishing my sentence.

I nodded.

“Captain Rogers has the most experience with the Tesseract, so when we find it he will be leading the response team in retrieving it from Loki.” The Director cut in.

“Response team?” I asked turning to Director Fury.

“Yes. We’ve called in some special help from people like Dr. Banner and Captain Rogers.”

“Speaking of which, where is our other associate agent Coulson?”

“Mr. Stark was given several files to catch him up on the situation, so unfortunately he won’t be joining us until a bit later.”

“It’s not that unfortunate.” Natasha commented from the side.

I looked around at all of them, surprised.

“Stark? As in Tony Stark? As in Iron Man Stark?” I asked, turning back to Coulson.

“As in pain in the ass Stark.” Natasha added.

“We’re hoping that because of the work Mr. Stark’s father, Howard Stark, did with the Tesseract that he’ll be able to help us better understand, and retrieve it.”

Overcome with the idea of such large figures all interacting together for the same purpose; figures like Captain America: a legend, Bruce Banner: One of the most brilliant minds in the world, and Tony Stark: A genius Billionaire a.k.a. Iron man, and the top S.H.I.E.L.D. agents available. It was exciting to think about alone and then I realized, we would all be working together, suddenly thrilled.

“Is Mr. Stark aware that we are on a time clock?” Director Fury asked.

“He’s fully informed of the situation. Whether or not he decided to take it seriously enough is another matter.”

“Speaking of time clocks” Dr. Banner interjected “How long am I staying?”

“One we have our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the wind.” Fury stated.

“From that point on our response team will handle the rest.”

“Once we sniff him out for ya, he won’t just quietly hand it over quietly.” Banner replied incredulously, as if it was all somewhat ridiculous.

“We’re aware of that. We already have a plan of action.”

“Which is what?” I asked.

Director Fury looked over to me.

“That is not to be disclosed at this point in time.”

My brows furrowed in confused frustration, folding my arms across my chest.

“I think we’re entitled to know what exactly we’re going to be doing a little ahead of time.” I stated.

His one eye focused on me for a moment as he slowly turned his body towards me.

“We? Agent muse, you will not be participating in the retrieval of the Tesseract.”

My eyes widened as he said this: shocked.

“What?!”

“It was made clear in the underground facility that contact with the Tesseract is hazardous to your health.”

“Hazardous?! Look at me I’m fine!” I protested.

“Dr. Selvig mentioned low levels of gamma radiation were being emitted from the Tesseract in the chamber when you experienced pain, we can’t risk your safety by putting you in contact with it again.”

“My Safety?! Are you even hearing yourself right now?!”

I was insulted and had lost complete composure, disregarding the fact that I was yelling at the director; my superior, only focused on my anger.

“That’s the whole point of being an agent isn’t it?! S.H.I.E.L.D.’s function is to protect the world and that means facing threats, that means facing danger constantly and I know that! Every agent knows that! I mean it’s not like everybody else isn’t risking their lives! It’s not safe for anyone but we’re doing it anyway because it has to be done!” I spat as he kept his one eye on me, still and calm.

I scoffed, laughing slightly at the ridiculousness of it.

“It’s obviously not a matter of safety or else we’d be screwed!”

“Agent Muse…” I heard Coulson from my side.

“This is because I’m young isn’t it?! You think I’m somehow less capable than everyone else?!”

“No. That’s not it. Agent Muse, the accident the other day damaged your internal organs, almost permanently. We don’t know why but you seem to be extremely sensitive to the energy that is emitted from it. Our doctors have stated that it’s not advisable for you to be in its proximity, so we’ve prohibited you from participating in the response team.”

My eyes widened a bit, finding it shocking to hear but also insignificant in the circumstance and staying anchored in my argument.

“Are you serious?! I don’t care about my organs when the whole world is at stake. You expect me to sit out while everyone else risks their lives?! How is that fair?!”

“It’s not about what’s fair. It’s about the fact that we’re protecting you from harm.”

I growled loudly and threw my hands up to my head.

“That’s what I’m saying! Why are you protecting me when everyone else is going to be in just as much potential harm as I am?! It just doesn’t make sense! Admit it Fury! It’s because you think I can’t handle myself! You think I’m weak because I’m young!”

“Agent Muse.” He stated, trying to get a word in but I wouldn’t let him.

“Well you’re wrong! I can handle myself! I am strong enough! And I’m going to help whether you like it or not! I don’t care if I get hurt!”

“I am not asking if you care about your safety or not. I am telling you that you’re not going to be an active part of this response team. That’s an order.” Fury demanded.

“It’s my life Fury! You can’t tell me what’s best for me or not! Some murdering psychopath is in possession of one of the most powerful objects in the entire world and I’m going to do whatever I can to stop him just like everyone else!”

“Agent Romanoff please escort Dr. Banner out of this environment please.” Fury ordered, keeping his eyes on me.

She began walking over, but Dr. Banner stopped her.

“I’m fine.” He stated awkwardly putting a reassuring hand up causing her to pause mid-path while I continued.

“The more people working towards the same goal the better chances of accomplishment, and the quicker it gets done! I can help!”

“AGENT MUSE!” He rose his voice.

I stopped.

“You can’t help. You can’t withstand it. You are weak and you need to realize that. You were compromised in that chamber, reduced to a pathetic bundle on the ground, you couldn’t even stand!”

I opened my mouth to protest but he wouldn’t let me, leaning in more and more as he continued.

“And you would have died there if I hadn’t carried you out and what’s worse is you accepted it. You wanted me to leave you there to die! You’re reckless agent Muse! Reckless and stubborn! And I don’t need reckless agents jeopardizing the mission! I also don’t need an agent who will make it five seconds on the field before collapsing and endangering others! You are NOT going to be a part of this response team and if I hear one more complaint about it out of you I’ll put you in lockdown!”

He glared at me with his one eye and took a deep breath in through his nose. I glared right back at him, right into the single dark orb in silence. He had just called me weak, useless and inefficient and though it angered me, I knew it was true. I hated it, I hated with everything inside of me, but it was true.

Whatever it was about the gamma radiation that the Tesseract gave off, or why ever it affected only me, was beyond my understanding but there was nothing I could do about it. And it was that weakness that forced me into the sidelines, into the desolate sense of worthlessness and weakness that sent an angry chill through my body. Some of the world’s largest, greatest figures were going to work together, a remarkable group of people who were going to find the Tesseract and defeat Loki and I couldn’t do a damned thing to help. I wanted to scream, to throw my fist into his face but I knew better. Fury would have no problems with throwing me into a lockdown cell for as long as he saw fit. I kept my mouth shut and glared at him, sending daggers at him through my gaze.

He pulled back out of my face, standing straight again, the others silent, looking between him and me.

“Now you can either keep going and I have security escort you to lockdown or you can shut up and get off of this deck.”

I glared at him, clenching my fists and digging my nails into the skin in the palm of my hand, willing myself not to open my mouth, not to throw back a retort. Instead I scoffed, whipping myself towards the door and storming out of the room.

 

(3rd POV)  
As agent Muse left the room, Director Fury turned, headed back to the center of the room as if nothing had happened. Banner and Steve awkwardly avoiding eye contact with anyone, having felt out of place during the argument.

“Agent Romanoff, show Dr. Banner to his laboratory please.”

She kept her gaze on the floor for a moment, biting her lip and ruminating on the situation that just happened before swiftly turning on her heel towards a set of doors, walking rigidly and with purpose.

“You’re gonna love it Doc, we got all the toys.”

As she passed Dr. Banner turned, a reluctance in his demeanor before shaking off the seriousness of the situation and following her.

“Really? Do you have the commodore 64?” He asked as he caught up to her.

Natasha slowed her pace a bit, stumped on his comment.

“I’m not sure…” she drawled.

“Oh, you’re very young.” Dr. Banner laughed.

Agent Coulson took a step forward ready to go after agent Muse.

“Agent Coulson.” Director Fury called, his back facing him.

“Don’t forget your assignment.”

Agent Coulson paused, looking from his superior to the doors across the room where Agent Muse left, his gaze dropping to the ground briefly before turning and descending the steps to help with the face trace leaving Steve Rogers standing on the black platform alone. He watched Phil Coulson descend the steps, having noticed his expression after Director Fury’s comment. His gaze traveled to the director before falling to the ground in thought and turned his head towards the doors where Agent Muse had exited.

 

(Agent Muse POV)  
I darted through the hallways, my fists still clenched as my teeth grinded against each other. I was furious. It wasn’t Fury’s decision whether risked my life or not, it was my life and I didn’t care if he was my superior.

It was the point of being an agent to face danger, to sacrifice our safety for the greater good. It’s what Fury always said, so it didn’t make sense for him to exclude me from that platform. I was an agent too and though I was a low level I was still capable and it angered me that he didn’t treat me like it.

It was taunting to think that I would have worked with them, that they would be fighting without me as I sat on the side. I was robbed of fighting next to Captain America, the man Phil had told me so many stories about, robbed of working with Dr. Banner and Tony Stark, two of the greatest minds in the world, robbed of helping bring down one of the world’s biggest threats. I was fully capable of helping yet Fury strongly believed otherwise.

He had called me weak and useless to my face and in front of Dr. Banner and Captain Rogers. From what he had said they most likely all believed that I was weak now, an ineffective child. It was embarrassing for them to have heard what he said, for them to think of me as weak. And it wasn’t just them. Loki, the man who had attacked the facility and stolen the Tesseract, the madman from another world who murdered so many, he thought I was weak too. The sick look on his face, that taunting smirk, mocking me and my strength. And in truth it was accurate at the time for him to view me that way, I’d have thought the same of someone who presented themselves as I did upon a first encounter. I could barely stand, worthless and fragile and he…he was obviously powerful.

Eric Selvig had mentioned in the facility that he was the brother of Thor, the supposed god figure who had come to Earth in the previous year, and Loki himself had mentioned that he was from Asgard, the supposed land of the gods that Thor was from, and if those things were true that meant Loki was indeed a god. I stopped then at a sudden thought. I wondered what it mean to be a god…I wondered if gods bleed, if gods felt pain, or if they were invincible. Suddenly the situation seemed far more serious than I had originally realized. Not only did this man have possession of the Tesseract, as well as a weapon that appeared to have the capacity to control minds, but he was a god, and what that meant was uncertain.

Clearly he was strong, his abilities were beyond that of a normal human. His skill in battle was extraordinary and his ferocity was explosive. He was indeed very powerful, and a very serious threat but that did not discourage me. He needed to be stopped. He was a madman who claimed to desire control over the world, over the human population, declaring his intentions as good natured.

I thinned my eyes, remembering what he had said in the facility. That he was going to free us from freedom. It was ludicrous; mad. He looked down on us, deluded in believing that he had the divine right to enforce his beliefs onto us. It was tyranny he aspired to. Demented and psychotic tyranny over humans with the belief that he was above us. He had compared us to ants, used the analogy that he was the proverbial boot and that he had the power to step on us but he was wrong.

The arrogance of it infuriated me, the misguided confidence in his divinity. It meant nothing to me. His motives were insane and he needed to be stopped. That was all there was to it. Regardless of whether or not he bleed or whether he was invincible or if he felt pain, he needed to be brought to justice.

It was the simple fact that I wouldn’t be a part in bringing him to justice that enraged me. It wasn’t fair for me to sit out of the danger while everyone else would be fighting and potentially dying. I deserved to go into the field as well. I had been there when he arrived, I watched him kill countless people and could do nothing. The least I deserved was a chance to redeem myself, to prove that I wasn’t weak, to prove Fury and everyone else wrong, to prove Loki wrong.

His name and face had solidified in my mind as the enemy. His towering form, the flagrant air of power about him, the insanity in his eyes, they were all aspects of the image manifesting in my mind. An image of a person that hate now swarmed around. He had called me weak and tried to kill me along with the countless others he had slain in that lab, as if I was an insignificant being compared to him. His arrogance was unbelievable, convinced that he was more powerful because he was a god and I was human.

If it hadn’t been for the pain that the Tesseract caused me, I would have taken him down. I would have kept him from getting away and prevented this whole situation. I growled in frustration as I winded through the halls aimlessly. It didn’t make sense why I was so sensitive to the Tesseract’s energy and nobody else was. It was because of that weakness that Loki had been allowed to get away, if I had just been stronger I could have stopped him then, even if I couldn’t have defeated him I could have at least stalled him long enough to have kept him from getting away and because of me the whole world was now in danger.

The Tesseract was powerful, no doubt. It had opened up a portal to another part of the universe in front of my eyes. I knew very little about it which made me curious as to why S.H.I.E.L.D. was using it, and what they were using it for. Being as powerful as it was I couldn’t imagine it having any potential for good. It seemed to me that the potential of something that powerful could only lead to destruction. The thing was a source of great misfortune, not only for me, but for the world and I found myself beginning to hate it, wishing that it had never existed. The whole situation had been caused by its existence and I couldn’t do a thing to change it.

Fists clenched I stopped in the middle of the hallway. Everyone else on the carrier was busy doing something to make themselves useful and there I was, alone and useless. I clenched my fists tighter, my nails digging into the leather of my gloves. In a sudden burst of anger I turned swiftly and punched the metal wall, feeling my knuckles sting the moment after as I brought them back to my side, ignoring the pain. Every muscle in my body felt uncontrollable energy wanting to escape, feeling like I would explode if it wasn’t released. I grit my teeth, reluctantly resigning to let out my aggression with some exercise and made my way towards the training room.

Entering I walked past the individual training rooms to my usual spot. As I entered the small area the lights came on and I proceeded to the control panel, holding my badge up to it. As it scanned my badge and processed the information I turned to the side, replacing my badge into my jacket and reaching behind me as an automated female voice spoke and the program loaded.

“Agent Muse. Level 4. Loading training program.”

Gripping hold of the rod in the back loop of my belt on each side, I pressed the button in the middle with my thumb, causing it to release into two blades as I pulled from either side.

“Program loaded.” The voice spoke again.

I flicked my wrists, the blades extending due to the release trigger inside the hilts—a design of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s technicians-- and set my gaze forward on the holograms before me. A buzzer sounded, counting down to the start of the course and I got into a stance, lowering myself slightly and holding my blades to my sides. The final buzzer sounded, followed by a ring, giving me the signal to begin and I shot forward in an instant, slicing through the first hologram and spinning to take out the next. The anger that I’d held inside was releasing in bursts as I darted at each hologram figure and sliced through it with ease.

Whipping around the training area and swinging my blades my frustration grew. I was an able fighter, just as much as any S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, but I was excluded from the response team. I got down low, ducking under a hologram’s attack and slicing through its mid-section. The Tesseract caused me pain and made me weak, and that weakness was why I was excluded and why Loki had gotten away. It was inexcusable! I stood up, spinning and taking out two approaching figures. I was weak, and somewhere inside of myself I knew that. I knew that I wasn’t as strong as I wanted to be; as I needed to be. I leapt into the air, flipping over one of them and cutting through its back as I landed. I needed to change all of that. I needed to become stronger. I needed to prove that I was stronger. The final hologram charged at me and I stood, glaring at the ground in frustration as I gripped my blades tightly. I needed to prove to Fury that I was stronger, to the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who doubted me, and…

The hologram figure pulled back its fist for an attack…

That mocking smirk of his as he looked down on me flashed in my mind and I grit my teeth, whipping my head up to the hologram and slicing through it swiftly with full force. The holographic bodies disappeared and my gaze returned to the ground, anger filling my body as the voice announced that the program had ended. I needed to prove my strength not only to Director Fury and the agents, but I needed to prove it to Loki as well.

His image in my mind was so vivid—oddly vivid—for I had only been in his presence for a few minutes, only faced him for mere seconds and yet his visage was etched into my mind like an ancient stone artifact. I began to feel nauseous standing there, as the thoughts progressed, becoming a kaleidoscope of his face. I closed my eyes, trying to steady my mind and expel such thoughts to no avail, as if they were invading my mind.

“Training awfully hard for someone who’s supposed to be sitting out.”

I looked up, surprised and not fully recognizing the voice as I turned to see Steve Rogers standing at the door to the training room. Captain America had just watched me fight and I hadn’t even noticed him in my frame of mind. He looked like he’d just caught a child stealing out of a cookie jar. I stared for a moment, appalled at why he was there before the only sensible reason became apparent, sighing and retracting my blades.

“I’m blowing off steam. Why? Did Fury send you down here Captain?” I asked as I connected the two rods, replacing them to my back and walked back to the control panel, beginning to ready my next course.

There was silence for a brief moment before he replied.

“No…” he said, stepping into the room and slowly walking over to me.

“That’s not why I’m here.”

I turned towards him slightly, encouraging him to explain as I stopped setting up my program.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

I raised my brows, surprised by his statement, having no idea why Captain America would want to talk to me.

“About what?” I asked confused.

“About earlier.”

My eyes widened slightly, realizing he was referring to the argument I had with director Fury and turned back towards the control panel, embarrassed.

“Listen, I know you think it’s not fair…”

I mentally rolled my eyes waiting for him to try and justify the situation.

“And you’re right, it’s not.”

I looked over to him, surprised by his words as he stopped a few feet away from me.

“It’s not fair to be left out, knowing that everyone else is working their hardest while you watch. All because of something that you can’t control.”

I turned fully towards him, listening attentively.

“I know what that feels like.” He said as his blue eyes focused on the floor.

“Back in my day the whole world was at war, and all I wanted to do was help, help protect people but I couldn’t.”

His eyes were focused to the lower right;an indication of emotional memory recall.

“I watched my friends…almost everyone I knew go off to serve while I tried desperately to join them…”

He raised his eyes to the ceiling, scanning it, almost as if searching for answers to a silent question.

“But I didn’t fit the qualifications.”

He dropped his head back down, pursing his lips reluctantly.

“I was just a weak little guy from Brooklyn.”

“And then you got the super soldier serum.” I added, looking back to the control panel.

I could see him look at me out of the corner my eye, hearing his clothing rustle with the movement.

“I’ve heard the stories. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t.”

I vividly remembered Coulson giving me history lessons on Captain America over and over again.

“Then you were able to fight, you didn’t have to sit out anymore.”

I looked straight down at the ground.

“I understand what you’re saying Captain, and I appreciate it…but I don’t have that option.”

There was silence for a few moments and I kept my eyes on the floor, avoiding contact with his.

“It wasn’t just before the serum…” he added, trailing off.

I turned to him, confused.

“What do you mean?”

“After I received the serum…immediately after in fact, Dr. Erskine was…murdered. There was no way to replicate it and so I was the only super soldier.” He kept his eyes on the floor.

“They kept me off the field so they’d have access to my blood in hopes of recreating Erskine’s serum. Even then I wasn’t allowed to fight. I finally had the ability to do something but I was still forced to sit out and watch my friends and allies die.” The look in his eyes was distant as he continued to speak.

“I was just a...” He stopped for a moment as if struggling to find the correct word.

“Mascot. A dancing monkey on behalf of good ol’ America. They had me selling war bonds and that whole time I just kept thinking that the only thing I wanted to do was fight, to get out into the field and help my comrades, face the enemy head on and put an end to the war.” He said, looking up to the ceiling again.

“But as I made my way across the country I realized that I was helping the people who couldn’t fight. I was giving them hope and getting them to help in whatever way they could. By buying the bonds, they provided ammo for the men who could fight, the men who were on the frontlines. I was doing something important and so were they.” He smiled to himself briefly. 

“Even if I wasn’t out there myself, wielding a gun, I was helping people in a different way. I was giving them a bigger part, even if everyone thought I was a joke.”

“I never knew that….” I stated, keeping my eyes on the ground.

“Coulson told me the stories about how you fought in the war and about who you were and I knew that you had endured a lot but I never would have guessed.” I looked up to him then.

“I mean, I can’t imagine going through what you have. To wake up after seventy years frozen in ice…” I trailed off, realizing that there was a line there that shouldn’t have been crossed.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up…”

“No, it’s not that.” 

I looked up to him, seeing his eyes on the ceiling again as he leaned against the wall, his hands in his pockets.

“Y’know when I woke up here and was told what happened I was shocked.”

“Obviously.” I replied, shrugging slightly.

"I mean I was in a completely new era. A new generation, New culture, new technology,…" His eyes wandered around the room.

"And new people." His eyes re-centered to the wall parallel to him.

"At first it didn't seem possible, like it was a misunderstanding, or a sick joke, or even a dream. But as the days went by I started to realize more things. Besides my surroundings, everything, the whole world had changed. I felt out dated. Expired even. And learning how to use all this new technology and getting used to it all was quite a struggle for me. Everything I knew about it had disappeared, including the people. All I wanted to do was serve my country, and live the normal life of a war hero. But what happened is far from that. Why am I even telling you all of this? I'm sorry. I guess it’s stupid." He laughed at the end, as if at his own ridiculousness.

“No it’s not.” I stated as he looked over to me.

I walked over to the space on the wall beside him, placing my hands behind my back and leaning against the wall next to him.

“It’s natural to be shocked in a situation like that. Anyone in your position would have felt the same. It was like you were sent to an entirely different planet. Sure there are things that are the same but they are all dramatically different. You shouldn’t feel ashamed or outdated or expired. You were a hero in your time and that is one thing that hasn’t changed and you shouldn’t forget that. You are a good man. You didn’t ask for any of this and it’s horrific that it happened to you, to be thrown into this. I know I can’t say that I understand it well enough to talk but I can empathize.”

I felt my gaze gravitating towards the ceiling, observing the laser light panels that formed the holograms as I pressed my fingers against the wall behind my back, pushing myself forwards a bit before letting myself fall back against the wall every few seconds.

“You might think people will look down on you for living in the past but you’re literally from the past so there is no shame in admitting those things. I’m sure there are a myriad of things that you miss. Old telephones, old cars, old music, family, friends…I can’t imagine how lonely that must be…” I looked down to the floor contemplating such desolation.

“And don’t feel stupid because you don’t understand certain things yet or there’s things you haven’t gotten used to. I have a lot to learn myself.”

He laughed a bit.

“I’m sure you could teach me a few things.”

“I wouldn’t count on it. I haven’t been at it for much longer than you.” I stated matter-of-factly.

“What do you mean?”

I sighed, looking forward at the opposite wall, and hanging my head to the side. It was always a bother explaining.

“A few months ago, I woke up with psychogenic amnesia; complete loss of identity. I had no idea who I was or where I was or anything really. Apparently the one thing I could do was fight, so SH.I.E.L.D. took me in, became my family, and ever since I’ve been an agent. Coulson offered to be my mentor and showed me everything I know, which is still pretty limited.”

“I had no idea.” He said shocked.

“How could you? You’re Captain America and I’m a level 4 agent.” I replied turning my head to look at him.

“So you have no idea who you were at all? Your family? Your name? nothing?” he asked.

“No. S.H.I.E.L.D. found nothing so I gave up caring. I didn’t really want to know to be honest. When S.H.I.E.L.D. took me in I was happy and I was afraid if they did find anything I would have to leave so in a way I’m glad they didn’t. S.H.I.E.L.D. is my only family now.”

“But you don’t even know your own name…” he said somewhat sadly.

“I don’t need one. I have my code name and that’s it. That’s all any agent needs on the field. S.H.I.E.L.D. is my life, my only life, so I don’t need any other identity. Names are just labels to differentiate one person from another, a title for your existence. “ I smiled, satisfied with my response.

He was silent for a bit so I looked at him, seeing that he was starting at me.

“What?”

“It just…seems like you don’t have an identity of your own. All you have is a code name, as if the only thing you are is an agent.”

“I am. My name is my identity, it defines me. I am an agent and I just want to focus on now and being this me. Everyone has just always referred to me as “agent Muse” and I’m fine with it. To me it’s who I always have been. That way I have no limits, it’s a clean and weightless name, nothing in my past to weigh me down.”

I looked over to him, nodding my head in his direction.

“It’s just like you’re Steve Rogers. That’s the title for your existence that people relate to the title of Captain America so people know who you are, have been, and will be. It’s a title that you’ve built the meaning of yourself, so people know who you are and what you do, just as it is with anyone else. I’m just still building what my name means, and who I am.”

I turned my head forwards, looking down again.

“But apparently that person is still weak…too weak to do anything important. I’m just a laughingstock to everyone. A disgrace.”

He looked over to me.

“That’s not true. You’re right. You are who you make yourself out to be. Whether you’re weak or strong right now or not, you’re a good person and that makes you someone of worth. You’re still molding yourself into who you want to be and that person may just be the strongest person you’ll ever know.”

He pushed himself off of the wall and faced me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I briefly looked down to it somewhat uncomfortably before turning back to him.

“My point is, agent Muse, is that it’s not always about fighting. It’s not always about being weak or strong. It’s about having the right heart and the will act. And you have that heart. You proved that out there.” He nodded his head in the direction of the door.

“So even if you’re not on the battle field, even if you’re not face to face with the enemy, you can still do you share to help. Just like everyone else on this…” he paused for a moment, at a loss for the word he was looking for, his eyes scanning the room briefly.

“Ship. They’re all working their hardest to try and find the enemy. It’s not an insignificant part. Without them we’d be ill informed and go into battle without knowing what we were up against. It’s just as important.”

He kneeled down in front of me so that he was closer to my height, his hand remaining in its place on my shoulder.

“Maybe there is a reason for this and you just don’t know it yet. Even though you can’t fight, maybe you have a bigger purpose too. You’re not a disgrace, you’re the real thing, and one day you’ll have the chance to prove yourself.”

“How did you?” I asked.

“What?”

“How did you prove yourself? How did you stop being a dancing monkey to everyone, stop being a joke?”

He stared at me a moment before answering, his gaze dropping briefly.

“Some…squads were captured by the enemy, and my best friend was one of them. Everyone told me there was no hope, that they were already dead but I took matters into my own hands and managed to get everyone out safely.”

He looked back up to me.

“I did what I could, and that’s what you have to do.”

He stood back up, placing his opposite hand on my other shoulder.

”Don’t let what you can’t do right now affect what you can do. Just do whatever you can to do your part in all of this and in the end you’ll come out much stronger than before.” He stated smiling.

I stared at him for a moment, my gaze dropping briefly before I looked back up to him.

“Thank you Captain.”

“Call me Steve. We’re friends now after all.”

“What?” I asked, somewhat shocked.

“Of course. I have to say, when I first saw you I didn’t quite know what to think of you being so young and with such an unusual appearance but I’ve been taking surprises pretty well lately. And after seeing you fight, and having this talk I can see that you’re much more mature than one might think and I enjoyed talking with you. I think you might have helped me in a way that I really needed.” He smiled, taking his hands away from me.

I arced a brow, befuddled.

“Really?”

“Really. Just knowing that I’m not the only one feeling a little lost in all of this is comforting, and you’re not alone either.” He smiled, patting me one last time on the shoulder and turning towards the door.

I watched him for a few seconds before he stopped a few feet away, turning around again.

“One more thing before I go…” he began holding up a finger.

“What?” I asked.

“What do you think of just “Muse”? Agent Muse seems so formal.”

I stared at him for a moment before responding with a shrug.

“It’s fine with me.”

He smiled.

“Alright then, I’ll see you later Muse.”

I smiled to myself for a moment as he walked away, taking in the fact that I had just had a conversation with Captain America himself. However my smile began to fade as I remembered why he had wanted to talk to me to begin with. Steve had a point but it didn’t change anything. The facts were I couldn’t help with the response team and there was nothing I could do about it. Everyone including Steve himself was going to go into battle against the enemy, against Loki…

I glared at the wall, the thought of him angering me in an instant. His image was so vivid in my mind, his mocking smirk and his power. The fact that I wasn’t allowed to fight him made me hate him even more and it fueled my anger.

Suddenly my head began to hurt, a similar sensation to what I had felt in the underground chamber. I grabbed my head, feeling slightly dizzy and reaching out to steady myself against the wall, in the next instant falling to my knees and collapsing against it.

“Ugh!” I let out a groan as I came in contact with the hard metallic wall.

As I laid there, my vision blurring slightly. Trying to sit up, I heard quickly approaching footsteps. In a moment Steve was at the door, his image obscure as he came over to me.

“Muse! Are you alright? What happened?”

I waved him off.

“I’m fine. Just…my head…” I said as he sat me up against the wall.

“Should I call for someone?”

“No. I’m really fine, I just need to…”

I pushed myself up, using the wall as support as I got on my feet, stumbling slightly. Steve grabbed ahold of me, holding me up.

“I think you should lay down. I’ll find you a room.”

“No…it’s alright.” I protested trying to push myself away from him.

“I’m not taking no for an answer.” He stated, grabbing hold of my shoulder and walking with me slowly as my vision faded in and out.

Down the hall from the training rooms were the boarding rooms. Steve helped me along until he found an empty one and helped me inside to the bed. As he let go of me I put a hand to my head gripping the sheets.

“You should lay down for now. You don’t look too good.”

In too much pain for words, I did what he said, beginning to sweat from the stress on my body.

“I’ll be back to check on you later.” He said, standing by the door and hesitating for a moment before exiting, the door sliding closed behind him.

The pain was insufferable. It felt like my head was going to explode. I rolled onto my side and gripped the pillow tightly, as light from the moon lit up my room. It only seemed to disturb my mind more so I turned the other way and faced my wall slowly falling to sleep.

 

(3rd POV)  
Steve headed back down to the main deck, worried about the young girl. Considering her physical state he was glad that she wasn’t going to fight. As he entered the large room agent Romanoff turned to him and walked over.

“Captain Rogers, we were wondering where you went.”

“Muse seemed upset so I talked to her. She’s resting now.” He replied, walking up to meet her.

She stared at him for a moment.

“You mean agent Muse?”

“Yeah.” He replied simply, somewhat confused why she asked.

She lowered he gaze for a moment as if considering something.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You should call her by her professional name: Agent Muse.” She said, turning.

“But she is a person. If you call her that she has no identity, she’s just an agent.”

Natasha turned back to him, her eyes flickering with hesitation before she spoke.

“That’s the point Captain Rogers.” She responded, turning and walking away, leaving Steve standing there in silence.

 

(Agent Muse POV)  
The pain was excruciating causing me to writhe where I laid, half asleep. It was too much to take and I sat up opening my eyes as I brought a hand to my head, freezing the instant I did. I was no longer in my room on the Helicarrier.

Machines and men surrounded me, some military, some what appeared to be scientists. I stared for a moment before looking around to see stone walls and arches under a low ceiling, resembling some sort of underground railway. I stood up, feeling the dampness of the ground as I pushed myself to my feet and snuck behind one of the pillars. Peeking out from behind it I was able to scope out the area, trying to figure out where I was and how I had gotten there when suddenly two military men ran directly behind me out of an arched passage and into the area passed me. I froze, wondering why they hadn’t reacted to me. There was no way they couldn’t have seen me.

Slowly I took a step from behind the pillar, stepping out into the walkway in between the men and machines, waiting for someone to notice me and attack, on my guard, but no one did. I cautiously walked up next to a scientist and watched him build some unknown structure.

“Hey.” I said, receiving no response.

“Hey! Where am I?” I tried again, no response.

I went to tap him, finding that my hand went right through him. I pulled back shocked. Staring at him for a moment I realized that no one could see me. I looked around again, even more confused than before when suddenly a blue glow caught my eye directly down the walkway seeing an area enclosed with plastic tarps, with many busy men inside it. And there, within that small room, was the Tesseract. My eyes widened at the sight of it as I saw a man walk over to the side of it, realizing that it was Dr. Selvig. Suddenly something obscured my view, a man stood in front of it, holding up a tablet and in the next moment I realized who it was.

“Clint…” I said aloud.

I began walking forwards, towards him when something brushed passed me and as I looked up to see what it was I froze, watching the figure proceed forward without a second glance my way, his black coat hovering at the tips with each step. It was Loki.

Eyes wide I watched him proceed forward towards the others, beginning to understand where I was yet utterly confused as to how. He stopped in front of the tarp area and began talking to Clint and Dr. Selvig. I cautiously approached, placing one foot in front of the other slowly as I came up behind them, stopping just a few feet behind Loki.

“This is wonderful!” The Dr. exclaimed, walking to the front of the Tesseract to speak to Loki.

“The Tesseract has shown me so much. It’s more than knowledge it’s truth.”

As he spoke I observed how unhealthy he looked. The fierce blue of his eyes was visible even from my distance as I approached and he appeared to be in disarray.

“I know…” Loki responded, trailing off for a moment.

“It uh, I touches everyone differently.” He said, then turning to face Clint.

“What did it show you agent Barton?”

“My next target.” He replied simply.

Dr. Selvig chuckled a bit.

“Stick in the mud. He’s got no soul. No wonder you chose this—this tomb to work in.” He said motioning to the environment.

“Well the Radisson doesn’t have 3 levels of lead line flooring between S.H.I.E.L.D. and that cube” Clint retorted as Dr. Selvig nodded in reluctant agreement before turning back to work on the cube.

“I see why Fury chose you to guard it” Loki said, turning and falling in step with Clint who began walking towards me, down the aisle.  
I stepped out of the way quickly as they passed me, watching them walk side by side for a moment as I stood, trying to understand the situation.

The last thing I remembered was being in the Helicarrier and talking to Steve, when he brought me to a room to rest. I looked down at my hands opening and closing them once and looking over at the two men who walked the main aisle. It was far too real to be a dream, but the explanation as to why no one could see or hear me was unknown. Nonetheless I jogged after the two of them, trying to focus on what I could do to take advantage of the situation.

“You’re gonna have to contend with him sir. As long as he’s in the air, I can’t pin him down. And he’ll be putting together a team.” Clint said.

“Are they a threat?”

“To each other more than likely, but if Fury can get them on track, and he might, they can throw some noise our way.”

“You admire Fury.” Loki stated as they turned, straying from the center pathway and off to the side passed the pillars.

“He’s got a clear line of sight.”

“Is that why you failed to kill him?” Loki asked angrily, proceeding passed Clint as he stopped next to a table with some equipment on it.

“It might be. I was disoriented. And I’m not at my best with a gun.” He replied.

I came beside Clint, keeping a safe distance as I watched Loki walk into a passageway and stop, turning around to face him.

“I want to know everything you can tell me about this team of his.” He said holding up a finger.

“I would test their mettle…” He trailed off looking down the passageway as if in deep thought

“I am weary of scuttling in shadow.” His gaze fell of the ground as he paced, looking around in disgust.

“I mean to rule this world…” He said turning fully towards the entrance of the passageway and looking up before facing us again.

“Not burrow in it.”

“It’s a risk.” Clint informed him.

Loki smirked, seemingly pleased by the idea.

“Oh, yes.” He nodded.

“If you’re set on making yourself known, it could be useful.”

“Tell me what you need.” Loki said walking back out of the passageway and stopping in front of Clint who then turned to the table of equipment beside him and opened a case.

Reaching in he took out his bow, pulling the bowstring back to release its full form.

“I’m gonna need a distraction. And an eyeball.” He replied.

“Where?” Loki asked as they began to walk back towards the area where Dr. Selvig worked.

“The Tesseract showed me that the iridium the doctor needs is in Stuttgart Germany. A research facility called Schafer, it’s the only one that has the amount we need and it’s heavily guarded. I’ll need men.”

I took note of this, listening intently.

“And the distraction?” Loki asked smiling as if excited.

“The labs are only accessible to a handful of authorized personnel. It just so happens that Dr. Heinrich Schafer, one of said authorized personnel will be giving a speech at the Kõnigstrasse Hall gala tomorrow night.”

He came to a stop in front of a table right next to the Tesseract area and picked up a holo screen, taping an image of a man’s face and bringing it up before showing Loki.

Loki simply smirked as he observed the man’s picture.

Clint nodded.

“I’ll load the men.”

With this he began walking away. I looked from him to Loki, feeling the gravity of the situation before looking over to the Tesseract. If I could just take it and somehow find my way back to headquarters not only would the crisis be averted but I would prove to everyone that I was capable. I slowly walked over to it, fazing through the plastic tarp like a ghost and wondering if I would even be able to physically touch it in the state that I was in. I proceeded over to it, reaching my hand out to grab it, suddenly feeling excruciating pain and falling to my knees as it began pulsating lightly and glowing.

Dr. Selvig and Loki quickly turned to it, seeing the reaction as I too looked up to it in confusion. Clint, who was only a few feet away turned back and came up next to Loki.

“What’s happening?” Loki demanded.

“I thought you said there would be no interference.” Clint added.

“There shouldn’t be!” Dr. Selvig replied, stepping back.

“There are three layers of lead line floor between us and the surface. Not even cosmic rays should be able to pierce through that kind of buffer!” he continued as I staggered to my feet, backing away when suddenly the glowing stopped.

“It’s stopped all of a sudden…” Dr. Selvig stated.

“Could it have been a spontaneous occurrence?” Clint asked.

“No.” Dr. Selvig said, shaking his head and waving off the idea as if it was a physical object.

“No spontaneous occurrence could have had a reaction like that. It had to have been caused by interaction with some sort of catalyst.”

“Like what?” Clint asked.

“I don’t know.”

Suddenly everything froze before me. The doctor stopped speaking, still in his placement as well as Clint and Loki slowly turned his head towards me, his eyes locking with mine. I winced slightly, a bit alarmed and looked behind me to see what he was looking at seeing nothing but pillars and brick. I turned back to him as he tilted his head slightly as if in confusion his eyes still locked on me.

“You…” he said.

My eyes widened realizing that this was directed towards me, and that he could see me. I began backing up, seeing him turn towards me and take a step forward in front of a frozen Clint and suddenly he was gone as I processed that I was looking at a dark room. I stared for a moment, feeling the pillow pressed against my body, my hands curled around it and I sat up, releasing it and staring at the ground. Eyes wide I contemplated the reality of what I had just seen. It had all seemed so real but it couldn’t have been. I looked at my hands, trying to distinguish the reality of them when I saw an enormous burn through my glove. My eyes widened as I recalled reaching out to the Tesseract and the energy burst that had flared out towards me. I looked up to the wall, bringing my injured hand to my chest.

It was real.

It seemed impossible but the burn was undeniable proof that I had somehow been in the enemy’s hideout. I had seen Dr. Selvig and Clint and I had seen Loki. From the heavy machinery and man power I could conclude that Loki’s plans were serious. But more importantly I had been only inches away from the Tesseract, the object that everyone on the main deck was trying so hard to find, and somehow, I had. I looked down to my hand once more to make sure the burn was still there and I wasn’t imagining things to see that it was.

I stood up, looking to the door. I needed to act, but the question was how. I could tell everyone but they would think I was insane or…

I looked back down to the burn.

I could take matters into my own hands.

I thought about what Steve had said when I asked him how he had proved himself, how he had shown everyone that he was not a joke. He had gone against the odds, he had broken the rules and done what he thought best—done what only he could.

I weighed the options and facts, mulling them over well. I could go after them myself and take a Quinjet, but my experience with flying one was limited. Coulson had only shown me the basics, things that every agent needed to know in case of emergency, and in my mind the situation was an emergency. I was capable of sneaking down to the launch bay and taking a small, independent Quinjet and if I went after them myself and got the Tesseract back, I would prove to them all that I was strong. In a moment I had decided and flown out the door headed down to the launch bay.

 

(3rd POV)  
Loki stared at the spot where the strange young agent from the previous night had just stood before suddenly disappearing, shocked and questioning what he had seen.

“Sir?” Clint spoke up.

Loki turned to him briefly, before glancing over at the spot where she had been once more.

“Is everything alright?” Dr. Selvig asked.

Loki stared for a moment longer, then glanced at the Tesseract before turning and walking away, smirking to himself.

“Yes. It is.”

 

(Agent Muse POV)  
It was late afternoon and there were no incoming landings so most of the men were attending to storage and safety maintenance. I snuck across the bay and over to a single passenger jet, knowing that what I was doing was both insane and against the rules, but in my mind, rules meant nothing when the world was at stake. Rules meant nothing in war.

I climbed into the jet, immediately putting it into stealth mode as it started and looking around for any witnesses. As the jet faded out of sight due to the cloaking technology, I started it up, the engine only making a low hum with the stealth mode setting on. I set the necessary controls before inhaling deeply and taking off down the runway, only a swift gust of air as proof of my departure. My heart rate was high as I looked back at the Helicarrier fading into the distance. There was no turning back.

I situated myself, taking in a breath and calming myself when suddenly I realized I had no idea where I was going. I had no clue Loki’s hideout was. I had only seen it from the inside and seeing only the color of the stone and knowing that it was underground was not much of a lead when he could be anywhere in the world. At this realization I stared out the window in shock for a moment before looking down to the GPS system. I quickly set the location that I had managed to remember from Clint and set my gaze forward. I didn’t know where his base was, but I knew where he was going to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave a heart and a comment if you enjoyed!


	3. Spontaneity

The Beauty of the unexpected lies within the surprise of the momentum, not only at its tipping point, but also within all the moments waiting.  
-Akilnathan Logeswaran  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
Chapter 3: Spontaneity  
The flight to Germany was shorter than expected with the speed of the Quinjet. In only a few hours I made it to the city of Stuttgart just as Clint had said. Somewhere inside myself there was doubt, wondering, still, if the burn could be proof of something so ludicrous but it was my only chance to do something about the situation myself.

I landed the Quinjet atop a building near the location smoothly and quietly in stealth mode. Exiting I saw that it was the late evening due to the time zone difference.

The GPS system had said that the Kõnigstrasse hall was not far away. Scanning in all directions and seeing a tall building with a spire I assumed the building was a fitting place to hold a gala and began the hurtling of rooftops.

 

(3rd POV)  
Steve Rogers stood next to agent Phil Coulson on the Helicarrier main deck, awaiting progress in the search for the Tesseract and the god named Loki.

“I uh, I have some trading cards of you.” Coulson said hesitantly.

Steve looked over at him briefly, as if making sure that he had been talking to him before facing forward again.

“Oh really?” he said, seeming somewhat taken aback.

“I’ve been collecting them for years. I finally have the complete set.” Coulson said, turning to the man beside him with controlled excitement.

“I was uh…wondering if you could sign them.” He added, looking away nervously.

Steve looked over to him again and then back towards the open control room.

“Sure.” He responded simply.

Agent Coulson’s smile spread widely, keeping his excitement contained.

“I mean…if it’s not too much trouble.” He added.

“No, no. It’s fine.” Steve said shaking his head as his gaze remained forward.

Coulson smiled as if to himself and there was a moment of silence between the two.

“It’s a vintage set.” He began, pausing again.

“Near mint. Slight foxing around the edges but—“

“We got a hit. 67% match!” agent Sitwell called from his position at one of the computers along the side of the room.

Director Fury, agent Coulson, and Steve Rogers all turned upon hearing this, Steve proceeding across the platform to get a better look.

“Wait, cross match. 79%” Sitwell added.

“Location?” Agent Coulson asked, coming up beside Steve.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Kõnigsrasse.” Agent Sitwell responded, turning back to the screen as the satellite pinpointed his exact location and pulled up a live image of Loki at the stated location.

“He’s not exactly hiding.” He added, seeing him walking around among the public.

“Captain.” Director Fury called to him, causing Steve to turn to him.

“You’re up.” He said simply, his one eye locked on Steve with seriousness.

Steve stared at the director for a moment before nodding and taking off to get ready for battle. Agent Coulson had informed him where his uniform would be kept and as he headed to that location he passed the hall where he had taken Agent Muse earlier and stopped, briefly, turning and looking down the hallway wondering how she was doing.

Knocking on the door to her room, he received no answer and quietly opened it, peeking in to see if she was alright. To his surprise she wasn't there. Assuming that she’d recuperated and left he proceeded to his destination. After suiting up he headed to the landing deck where several agents were in a frenzy.

“One of the Quinjets is missing!” He heard one of them exclaim.

“We have a logged takeoff over 3 hours ago!” came the voice of another.

Steve thought back to when he’d taken Agent Muse to rest a few hours ago, suddenly realizing what she had done, looking out to the sky beyond the landing deck.

“Oh no…” He said under his breath.

 

(Agent Muse POV)

The Kõnigstrasse hall was a rather large and ornate building, a splendid piece of architecture. Beige colored bricks with immaculate designs carved into the surface of the stone archways around the large windows. From the roof I could see many opulent people below, entering the building along red carpets in lavish attire.

So far the vision I’d had was right. There was an event being held in the location that Barton had mentioned. I looked down to the burn on my hand for assurance, seeing it still there I clenched my fist and looked down from the top of the building. I scanned the crowd outside in the courtyard, looking for suspicious activity, seeing only a mass of well-dressed people. As the sounds of the cars pulling up in the drive at the front of the building and the chattering people pouring in rose into the air around me, I spotted a familiar glow in the courtyard. My eyes widened then as I saw the familiar features of the man who stole the Tesseract.

My muscles tightened at the sight of him, dressed in seemingly uncharacteristic clothes. He wore a surprisingly sharp, fitted black suit with a long jacket atop a white dress shirt, complete with a black tie and a green and gold woven scarf hung loosely around his neck. He looked utterly different from the man I had seen the other night but though his polished visage had changed, the puckish expression he held revealed his true persona.

He scanned the area nonchalantly as I watched him, proceeding in with the crowd of wealthy people. I cursed him under my breath as he disappeared within the doors beneath me, knowing that I would have to find a way to follow him without revealing myself.

I darted across the roof, searching for an entrance, surprised that I had not run into any form of security at such an important place when I heard something shooting through the air, followed by a grunt and some thuds. I snapped my head in the direction of the sound as my hand went to my knives but I saw nothing. Curious I cautiously headed over to the side of the building where I’d heard it and abruptly saw a security guard sniped with an arrow, sending him toppling off of the roof in the next instant. After a moment the type of weapon processed; an arrow. All at once I knew who had shot him.

I advanced over to the side of the building where the man had fallen and pressed my back against the ledge, crouching before I slowly peeked over the side. Just as I had suspected I saw Clint and some other military men like I had seen in my vision accompanying him. Two security guards lay dead on the ground, the one that had fallen off face down in a pool of blood. I quietly watched their movements for a few seconds as they unpacked what appeared to be S.H.I.E.L.D. technology and hooked it up to the door when suddenly Clint drew his bow and pointed it in my direction. For the first instant it didn’t process that it was aimed at me because he didn’t turn his head but as he released it and the arrow flew towards me I pulled out of the way as quickly as I could, though the arrow grazed the side of my arm, tearing the flesh wide open.

I dropped down behind the ledge, slapping a hand over my arm to hold the blood in and grunting in pain. Looking over to my arm and removing my hand to see the wound I observed that it was deep, a chunk missing from my right deltoid muscle as the blood poured freely from the gash, covering my opposite hand. I growled, quickly reaching down to grab some bandages from my thigh pouch when suddenly I heard the clang of metal to my side. Turning my head I saw that three of the men with Clint had climbed up a ladder, further down along the roof and were approaching me. I quickly bandaged my arm, standing as I finished, the men only a few feet away.

The first barreled towards me and I locked into my stance waiting for him, observing that he did not have the same glowing blue eyes as Clint, therefore deducing that he was not under mind control and still meant to kill me: I had the clear not to hold back.

As he went to grab me, I cut to his side, throwing the roll of bandages over his opposite shoulder as I held onto the unrolled end, and ran around to his back. Grabbing the other end in midair as it flew over his shoulder, I twisted the two ends together so that they were tight, choking him as I pulled him to the ground. I crouched slightly, leaning back and anchoring myself down for more resistance against the man’s superior force. Hearing the two other men come up behind me, the first still choking and trying to pull forwards, I took both ends of the bandages into my left hand, wedging the elbow of the same arm under and around the bandages and pulled my elbow back, causing the man to be pulled back towards me. In that same moment I ripped out a knife with my other hand and slit his throat. Whipping myself around towards the other two men, I used the force of the turn to send the first one flying towards them, his blood pouring out all around. They stepped back to avoid colliding with his body, looking down at their pale faced comrade before looking back up to me as I pulled out another knife.

“One down.” I stated, smirking at them.

Angered they charged at me, one punching toward my face as I ducked, spinning around under his arm so that my back was facing him, and stabbing him in the gut behind me with my right hand. With the other I reached up and grabbed his wrist, manipulating his weight by pulling him forward so that he bent over me, I hiked my back up into his rib cage, knocking the breath out of him as I grabbed his arm with both hands, cringing as I felt the arrow wound sting and pulled him over my back, flipping him onto the ground messily and grabbing my arm the instant after.

As he fell onto his back the other man was next to me in a minute. Bringing my arms up to block his attack I noticed the other man getting to his feet, holding his fresh wound. The one in front of me threw another punch and I leaned to the right, my arms still up to block. As he threw the third the man I had stabbed came up behind me and I ducked, allowing the man in front of me to punch the one behind me. As he stumbled back I slipped out from between them, flipping backwards twice to make distance. After a quick recovery they both flew at me, the one I had stabbed going straight for retaliation, having grabbed a knife and beginning to swing at me. I back stepped with each swing, then dove under his arm, driving my fist into his stomach and reaching behind me to catch the knife as he dropped into my hand. I then immediately stood, punching him straight under the jaw and sending him tumbling backwards. Hearing the other man approach behind me, I turned swiftly, ready to slice at him with my injured arm before a surge of pain shot up to the wound. As I cringed at the pain the man grabbed by arm sending the knife flying out of my hand and he pulled me against him, securing his hands around my arms, holding them at my sides.

The other man regained himself as he stood back up and turned, a smile forming on his face as he saw that his partner had caught me. I let them think they had the upper hand, waiting until the right moment as the other man came up in front of me. I struggled enough to convince them that they had me but as the other man came to a stop in front of me and immediately I threw my legs up in front of me, kicking the other man swiftly under the chin. He fell over as my legs continued back behind my captors head, his arms loosening as I slipped down low enough to give myself the room to wedge his head between my knees, squeezing and crushing his skull as he let go of my arms I hung upside down in front of him, holding myself up by my knees as I continued to crush his head in between them. Then I grabbed a knife out of my pack and sliced his gut wide open. I then reached down to the ground, placing my hands firmly and letting all of my weight fall back, sending his head directly into the ground as I flipped and landed on my back. I stood up rushing over to the other man as he went to get up and kicked him hard in the side of his head, knocking him out fully. Taking proper care, I took out my dagger and flipped him onto his back, plunging the blade in and running it down his spine.

I stood, replacing my dagger and wiping my face.

“Don’t get up.” I stated sarcastically as I stepped on his head and walked passed him, gripping the arrow wound and catching sight of a large dome of windows in the center of the roof.

Coming up to the dome I began to hear an enchanting violin melody coming from inside, gripping my arm tightly through the bandages and trying to stop the bleeding. I stood, looking down into an elaborate room, filled with the same finely dressed people that had entered the building. I scanned the room, looking for the blue glow of his staff when suddenly there was movement on the balcony just below me. I crouched down, watching as Loki slowly paced along the railing, looking out over the room. I glared down at him maliciously, wishing that for just a moment looks could kill. 

I cursed the fact that I couldn’t find another way in, watching him closely as he raised his staff slightly and shifted it in front of him. He began descending the steps and I clenched my fists, ready for him to make his move as I observed his smooth yet reserved steps. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he strode calmly up next to a security guard, flipping his staff in the air and catching it by the shaft as the guard caught sight of him, going to make a move as Loki slammed the head of the staff into his skull, knocking him out instantly and receiving gasps from the patrons. The man who had been giving the speech turned around with alarm as Loki came up on him quickly, grabbing him by the neck and dragging him across the room to an ornate marble table where he quickly flipped him over completely with inhuman strength as I quickly leapt down onto the dome, crashing through the glass and falling with it, earning more screams from the crowd.

As I landed Loki pulled out a strange pronged device and paused for a moment, turning his attention to me as the crowd cleared out the area around me to avoid the glass. His expression was of controlled surprise in that moment as I stood, small pieces of glass falling off of me as we locked eyes through the frenzy of screaming people. Not faltering for a moment, he simply smirked and pressed a button, releasing blades on the device. I shot forward in a flash as he brought the device down towards the man’s face, in a single instant analyzing the situation. One of his hands was occupied holding the staff down to the side and unprepared to attack at my speed and the other holding the device; He had no arms to attack or defend with. I leapt onto the table between Loki and the man, throwing my forearm up and blocking the motion causing controlled shock to display on his features as I smirked with absolute pleasure bringing my other arm up and driving all of my power into one punch, landing him in the face.

He let out a grunt flying back as my eyes widened, shocked at my own strength and looking down at my fist for a moment in confusion before turning my attention back to the situation at hand. I took the momentary opportunity to help the man, who I had deduced was Dr. Schafer up from under me, feeling immense pride for the hit I had landed on Loki though it abruptly came to a halt as I began to feel pain spread throughout my body, my head beginning to pound again. I helped the Dr. up to the best of my ability, though his age and my pain didn’t make for a speedy ascent but I managed to get him to his feet. Cringing at the throbbing of my head I turned to the crowd, yelling at them with what little German I knew.

“JEDER HIER RAUS JETZT! LAUFEN! AUSSTEIGEN, GEHEN! ALLE! ALLE!” I yelled as I stood the Dr. up and slowly got down off of the platform and motioned to the doors with my free hand.

Suddenly I was grabbed from behind, feeling a large hand gripping the nape of my neck and I was flung backwards into a pillar, hitting it hard and sliding to the ground. Slowly I opened my eyes, trying to sit up, hindered by the pain in my back from the impact against the pillar as well as the spontaneous pain that filled my body much like in the Tesseract chamber. Loki slammed the man’s head back down into the table, shoving the device into his eye as the man’s screams filled the room causing everyone to panic more and clear out. As Loki stood, watching them run, grinding the man’s eye away into nothing, I fought to stand unable to understand why I was in so much pain.

Finishing the man off, and retracting the device back into his pocket, Loki looked around at the scattered people fleeing from the room and smirked gleefully as if to himself before turning back to me. Growling in rage, that he had killed another person, and even more so that I had let yet another person die in front of me uselessly, I watched him round the table heading towards me. I glared at him as he approached, reaching for one of my knives as the pain seemed to grow worse with each step he took towards me. Just as I pulled the knife out and got to my knees, still unstable, he reached down, grabbing me by the shirt and lifting me off of the ground as if it were nothing and slamming me back into the pillar causing me to drop my knife.

“We meet again.” He stated, smirking as if enjoying my pain.

“Gets more unpleasant every time.” I added, gripping his arm with one hand and reaching for another blade slowly with my injured arm.

His smirk widened at my comment as I gripped hold of my knife. I forced the blade forward at him but to my surprise he knocked the knife out of my hand with his staff. My arm fell limply to my side as I fought for strength, the blue light of the stone at the head of his staff glowing while I continued to grip his arm, attempting desperately to pull his hand away.

“I was surprised to find that you had survived the previous night.”

“I’m surprised you’re going for the scarf look. A little ostentatious, don’t you think?” I choked out sarcastically.

He smirked bitterly at this.

“Indulge my curiosity mortal, how is it that you still live?”

“Luck.” I spat.

He chuckled maliciously.

“Then come.” He began, peeling me away from the wall.

“Let us test your luck again.”

He abruptly turned, throwing me violently toward the table. Crashing into it, my back hit the ledge as I felt a sickening crack.

“GAAHH!!” I screeched, falling forwards on my hands and knees, barely able to hold myself up as the pain cut off my speech, now only quiet sounds escaping my lips.

He approached me at a casual speed, his scarf and coat swaying slightly with each step. I looked up to the best of my ability as my arms shook, threatening to give out, eyeing him as he leaned down and outstretched his hand towards me, grabbing me by the jaw and hoisting me up before slamming me back onto the table. I grabbed his hand, cringing at the blow to my already injured back as I looked over at the now motionless and one-eyed corpse of Dr. Schafer who laid beside me, then back up to Loki. Holding me down with one hand and partially cutting off my oxygen I saw that his staff seemed to change into the spear I had seen the previous night right before my eyes. I tried to kick him but the damage to my spine caused a sharp pain with every movement at the angle he had me pressed against the table, rendering my legs nearly useless as they scraped along the side of the table in an attempt to push myself up and away from him to no avail.

"And let us also put to test your mind."

He moved the spear towards my chest just as he did before in the underground Tesseract chamber. Time seemed to slow down for those few seconds as the spear came closer to me and as it did the pain seemed to worsen and the blue glow from the stone at it's head seemed to grow brighter until it was all that I could see and I felt my body jolt violently against the table. In the next moment I felt myself sliding off of the table and onto the ground, my hand shooting up to my throat as I caught my breath. Realizing that I had been released my vision faded back to normal slowly as I looked around with blurred vision to see Loki standing only a few feet away from me and staring at me with wide eyes. I reached up to the ledge of the table and pulled myself up to my feet, feeling less pain in my spine and finding it easier to stand when suddenly my head began to pound again, causing my legs to weaken and reverse what progress I had made as it forced me back to my knees. With one hand I grabbed my head in pain and looked over to Loki, seeing him approach with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"How is it possible..." He trailed off.

As he came within my reach I took the opportunity of his momentary confusion, grabbing hold of his tie and yanking him down to the ground beside me, moving and allowing myself to roll on my side next to him, slamming my elbow into his chest with one arm and pulling on his tie to choke him with the other. Letting out an almost inaudible grunt he recovered quickly, the tie suddenly disappearing from my grasp and fading away as I looked over, seeing his clothing change in a dim golden glow. In a moment he had sat up, in the same clothing I had first seen him in along with a horned helmet, golden armor and a dark green cape, catching me by the throat and lifting me off of my feet as I felt the pain return.

“You would do well as an example.” He growled, holding my face at a threatening distance from his as I brought my hands up to his arm in reflex—the last few people clearing out of the room.

Unable to protest, choking from his grip and having wasted the last of my strength, my arms resided limply to my sides as he lowered me to the ground, shifting his grip so that he was only holding onto the collar of my jacket. He turned to the doors that the civilians had fled from and began dragging me behind him, the glass shards from my earlier fall cutting into me as I was pulled across them.

As he pulled me along helplessly my eyes shifted to the blue stone at the head of his scepter, watching the glow flicker almost un-noticably. It seemed that the pain worsened the closer it was to me, almost as if it was the source of my pain. I thought about how the Tesseract caused me pain and that it was possible that the stone in Loki's spear and the Tesseract were of the same power, and that both of them had the same affect on me. It was then that I realized I had made a horrible mistake in coming after him.

Exiting the doors the, screams of the patrons who attended the gala filled the air as I tried desperately to muster enough strength to release myself from his grip, but to no avail. As he continued dragging me along the red carpet as the final few people ran across the street, I heard sirens and glanced over to see an approaching German police car, speeding around the corner. Loki began crossing the street toward the courtyard where most of the people now scrambled, nonchalantly looking over to the police car and shooting it with the spear. My head began to pound as the blue light shot from it, sending the car flipping onto its hood and sliding to a stop. This seemed only to confirm my theory that the stone within his spear caused me pain. 

“Kneel before me.” I heard Loki speak from above me as he proceeded into the courtyard.

Looking forward I was able to see the crowd of frantic people turn back in towards themselves by what appeared to be copies of Loki, all standing like sentinels around the courtyard, blocking them into the small area. He came to a stop at the top of some shallow steps.

“I said…” he began in a low tone, pounding the end of his scepter into the ground causing a simultaneous burst of blue light from each of the clones scepters as well as his own.

“KNEEEEEEL!” He roared at the top of his lungs.

The people all froze, looking to him with eyes alit in fear before hesitantly getting to their knees and doing as he said. I groaned lightly in pain, placing my hands on the ground and trying to pull myself away from him as he held me up like a child held a doll.

“No…” I stated almost inaudibly.

Suddenly I was yanked to my knees in front of him his grip quickly shifting to my hair before I fell forwards, pulling my chin up so that I could just barely see his face.

“You see your hero before you, broken and weak. An example should you feel the ripening courage to resist.” He finished with a spiteful tone, tossing me to the ground beside him like a defective toy.

“But is this not simpler?” he asked, beginning to descend the few steps as I watched, motionless, my face pressed against the evenly lain brick on the ground.

“Is this not your natural state?” he outstretched his arms as if giving a noble speech.

“It is the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation.” I glared at him, my fingers only managing a pitiful twitch when I attempted to move, his arrogance sickening.

“The blind lure of freedom, diminishing your life’s joy in a mad, scramble for power.” He clenched his fist in front of him passionately as he proceeded through the mass of people, paving through them as if they were mere stones at his feet.

“You were made to be ruled.”

I exhaled sharply as I unintentionally blew a strand of hair from my face, disproving of his words. I desperately wanted to shut him up, to pummel him into the ground and make him taste cold steel for speaking so condescendingly to the people before him. Though I was put somewhat at ease by the fact that he spoke to them in English and as Germans they would likely not be able to understand his inane drivel.

“In the end...” he began, holding his scepter upright in his hand.

“You will always kneel.”

He stopped then, looking about the crowd in satisfaction when suddenly a form rose from the crowd; an old man.

“Not to men like you.” He stated in a thick German accent, obviously struggling with his English.

I both admired his bravery and cursed it, knowing it would be his end. My suspicion was confirmed as Loki turned to him.

“There are no men like me.” Loki stated vainly.

The elderly German man looked upon him knowingly with wise, aged eyes.

“There are always men like you.”

“Look to your elder people.” Loki began, lifting the spear and pointing it at the old man. I could hear the derision in his voice.

“No.” I growled, scraping at the ground with my fingernails and straining my muscles.

“Let him be an example.” He said, sending a bolt of blue light toward the man.

“No!” I screeched through tight teeth, closing my eyes, unable to watch another die because of my failure.

Hearing the clanging of metal and a grunt from Loki I re-opened my eyes, shocked to see Steve dawning his full Captain America suit. He had protected the man with his shield.

“You know, the last time I was in Germany, and saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing.” He stated standing tall I the sea of people driving some of them to stand out of curiosity.

My eyes wandered unable to see Loki until I spotted him on the ground, pushing himself to his feet.

“The Soldier.” He began, regaining his feet.

“The man out of time.”

“I’m not the one out of time.” Steve replied.

It was then that I saw the Quinjet hovering in the sky near the courtyard, suddenly feeling immensely embarrassed and idiotic laying there helplessly.

“Loki drop the scepter and stand down.” I could scarcely make out Natasha’s voice over the intercom of the jet.

For a moment there was no movement and in the next Loki shot at the jet with his scepter, my vision beginning to blur as the pain worsened and all sound faded into white noise. I fought for consciousness as the faint shapes of Steve and Loki engaged in battle and the fleeing people scrambling around, some occasionally stumbling into me, faded. The blue glow of the gem seemed to stand out among all of it as everything grew dark and my vision faded to black.

 

(3rd POV)

Agent Romanoff watched the famed Captain America and the Asgardian God fight in the German courtyard, trying to get a steady lock on Loki without risk of harming anyone else.

“The guy’s all over the place.” She stated, her eyes darting along to keep up with him when suddenly the display screen began flashing that the audio had been hacked.

“Agent, Romanoff.” The voice of Billionaire Tony Stark was heard as quiet rock music grew louder by the second.

“Miss me?” he asked as Iron man flew passed the Quinjet to the theme of ACDC’s shoot to thrill, causing agent Romanoff to smirk to herself.

In mid-swing, Loki was suddenly blown back by the blast of Iron man’s arc blaster as the metal man landed next to Captain America. Flying back into the steps, just in front of agent Muse’s unconscious body he grunted, looking up to the new contender.

“Make your move reindeer games.” Iron man demanded, referring smugly to Loki’s horned helmet as he deployed several weapons visibly on his suit.

Loki glared at them calmly, slowly lifting his hands in surrender as his armor faded.

“Good move.” Tony remarked, his weapons disappearing into his armor.

Captain America was silent for a moment, looking down at Loki in disbelief.

“Mr. Stark.” He stated simply in greeting.

“Cap’n.” Tony responded simply.

The Quinjet landed in the courtyard as Captain America and Iron man, escorted Loki onto the ship. Steve returned, looking down at agent Muse’s limp and injured body, his eyes full of remorse as he picked her up, one arm slipping behind her knees and the other supporting her back, feeling a bulging vertebrae.

“This wasn’t what I meant when I said to do what you can…” he stated reluctantly as if she could hear him and he boarded the jet to return to the Helicarrier.

 

(Agent Muse POV)

Color slowly flowed back into my vision as I regained consciousness. No longer feeling the rough brick under me I realized that I was laying on something quite soft as a low hum resonated in my ears and my vision cleared. I stared ahead for a moment before processing the form of Loki directly in front of me.

I immediately sat up, gasping, followed by an immense sting of pain that sent me falling to the ground.

“Muse!”

Suddenly Steve was above me, kneeling down to help me up.

“Take it easy, you’re safe now.”

As he placed a hand to my back I inhaled quickly, feeling a sharp pain. Gently he shifted his hand, sitting me down on what I realized was a row of seats within the rear of a Quinjet as I looked over at Loki who was shackled and belted to his seat, staring at me in silence. I gripped my injured arm in pain as his eyes bore into mine, his face expressionless as Steve got my attention.

“Are you alright?” he asked, kneeling down in front of me.

I broke my stare with Loki, quickly looking down to Steve, answerless and glancing back to Loki in confusion before looking back to him, responding.

“I…yeah.” I stated, lying blatantly.

My back was engulfed in pain, and with every movement a sharp sting shot up my spine.

“Who is this kid anyway?” a voice came from my left.

As I looked over I was shocked to see the famous billionaire.

“Tony Stark?” I asked as if to myself, forgetting his question.

“She’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.” I heard Natasha’s voice from the front of the ship.

“Who just broke S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol.” I shrunk back into my seat, trying to avoid being seen by her.

“Whoa, hold on a second.” Tony began walking over next to Steve and pointing at me.

“She’s a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? You’ve gotta be kidding I mean what are you twelve?”

I felt my face twitch slightly in irritation.

"I'm fifteen." I stated.

"Oh that makes all the difference." He replied sarcastically.

"This is what the super secret spy agency has reduced themselves to? A weird looking kid? What were they thinking sending her in there? They should have known she's get destroyed."

I glared at him, ready for a retort when Natasha interrupted.

"We didn't send her in. She stole a jet that she's not even authorized to fly and came on her own." I could feel the verbal darts she was throwing hitting me one by one.

"Yeah..." Steve began as I looked up to him.

"How did you even know where to go? You left long before the computers found him." He said motioning to Loki who remained silent.

I stared at him for a moment before looking to my enclosed fist resting on my knee, knowing that even with the burn as proof it would be a far fetched tale.

"Because of this." I stated holding my palm up to him.

There was silence for a few moments as both Steve and Tony examined my hand.

"A burnt glove?" Tony asked.

"What are we supposed to be looking at Muse?" Steve asked.

"What?" I asked, pulling my hand back for inspection.

I stared at my hand in shock to see that the burn had disappeared.

"It's gone..." I trailed off in confusion.

"What's gone?" Tony asked.

"The burn! There was a burn here from the Tesseract!"

"What are you talking about Muse?"

I looked up to them both seeing that they were giving me looks of confusion. I sighed, shaking my head.

"It's going to sound crazy but after you took me to the room to rest I had some kind of vision where I saw Loki and his hideout. Selvig was there and so was Clint. I saw the Tesseract and tried to grab it but it burned my hand. It's the truth! The glove is proof of that!" I said holding it back up for them to see.

"The burn was there! I don't know why it's gone but it was there!"

"Besides sounding unbelievable that doesn't explain how you knew where to go." Steve said seeming somewhat doubtful.

"While I was there I overheard them talking about the gala and stealing some kind of material so I took a jet and took matters into my own hands."

They both stared at me for a few moments and I looked over to Steve, trying to determine from his expression if he believed me or not when Tony spoke up.

"Riiight. I think we can all agree that sounds crazy."

"It does sound crazy but it's the truth. I don't know why or how it happened but I knew I had to do something."

"So you went and fought gruesome over there by yourself and expected to actually beat him? cute."

I glared at him, standing and feeling a sting of pain as my spine extended and I cringed slightly, Steve reaching over to me to help me stand.

“Just sit down. You’re hurt badly.”

“No.” I replied steadfast.

“Just because I’m 15 doesn’t mean that I’m weak. Don’t you dare make assumptions about my strength Stark. I am strong.”

“Sure, then why did rock of ages here have you on a silver platter?” he asked, pointing to Loki.

“The Tesseract!” I shouted.

“What about it?” He asked skeptically.

“I’m sensitive to the radiation it and that spear give off!" I yelled pointing to the spear lain on one of the seats towards the front of the ship.

"They make me weaker but that doesn’t mean I’m not a capable fighter!”

“Yeah, it means you get beaten to a pulp by the baddie and nearly killed. I’m fully convinced.” He stated sarcastically.

“She means what she says Stark. She’s a good fighter. I would know, I trained her.” Natasha called back to him.

“She’ll give you a run for your money.”

“Oh I’d love to see that.” Tony replied, looking up towards the front of the jet.

 

(3rd POV)

As they continued to argue Loki listened intently, pretending not to pay attention.

"The Tesseract!" she yelled causing Loki to raise a curious brow.

"What about it?" stark encouraged.

"I'm sensitive to the radiation it gives off! It makes me weaker!" she yelled at him.

Loki's face exhibited both surprise and confusion before a smirk spread across his lips as if he’d had a revelation.

 

(Agent Muse POV)

“I’d love to show you.” I retorted, standing up to him when I noticed intense lightning and thunder outside of the ship.

“Where is this coming from?” Natasha asked as if to herself, flicking switches frantically.

I looked around the back of the ship in confusion, noticing Loki’s expression of surprise, his eyes locked at the ceiling.

“What’s the matter?” Steve began.

“Afraid of a little lightning?”

Loki glanced over at him for a moment, looking back up to the ceiling of the ship.

“I’m not overly fond of what follows.” He replied when suddenly a loud thud resounded from the top of the ship and it jolted violently.

Tony, Steve, and I all looked about each other when the back of the ship was abruptly ripped open revealing a large blonde man, in strange clothing and a flamboyant red cape. I had lost my balance and was now hanging onto the seat, trying to stand up again without being sucked out of the jet. Tony tried to approach him but was sent flying back by something the blonde man threw at him. The man then unlatched Loki and dragged him away out of the ship. I stared, open mouthed, not accepting that just as soon as we got him he was taken away. I acted on impulse and grabbed a parachute.

“NO!” I roared, quickly throwing my arms through the straps of the parachute pack as I ran toward the end of the jet.

“MUSE!”

“KID WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I heard the voices of Steve and Tony fade as I leapt off of the jet, diving through the air as I saw the silhouette of the Loki and the other man fall under the clouds.

 

(3rd POV)

"Damn stupid kid!" Tony cursed as he approached the back of the jet.

"Wait you can't just go down there without a plan! Captain America yelled after him.

"Isn't that what you should have said to little miss agent just now because unlike her I have a plan. Attack." He said as he jumped out of the jet as well.

 

(Agent Muse POV)

As I dove through the air I took pleasure in the moment of exhilaration. I was falling through clouds and diving through mountains. Sinking under the wall of clouds I saw the two of them land on a distant cliff and I adjusted my direction, headed towards it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feel free to leave a heart and a comment if you enjoyed!


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